By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
April 15, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Northeast residents recently learned that the gateway to downtown Kansas City is closer to becoming the portal they’ve longed hoped for.

Stakeholders of the Paseo Gateway gathered at the Northeast Community Center to hear about updates on the Choice Implementation application submitted to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by the Housing Authority of KCMO. The application for the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant was submitted this past February.

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is a program from HUD, designed to address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public housing or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation centered on Housing, People and Neighborhoods. The grant is for $30 million.

Next on the timeline for the application process, the city would host HUD representatives later this spring. A short list of finalists will be announced in the summer and if Kansas City is selected, a notification will be sent out this fall. John Monroe, director of planning for the Housing Authority of Kansas City, said if selected, work would begin by the end of the year.

“A lot of cities that applied are on the east or west coast,” Monroe said. “We feel we have a good advantage being in the heart of America.”

During the presentation, Monroe also noted they’ve already got the ball rolling on one project they were waiting to start with HUD money, the Rose Hill Townhomes. The townhouses are located just west of The Paseo, at Admiral Boulevard and Troost Avenune. Monroe said funding for that project was just awarded in the form of state tax credits and a grant from Wells Fargo. The funding allows them to begin work on it, with the hope of showing it to the HUD representatives when they visit.

“We’ll show HUD we have momentum going forward and we’ve been doing good work,” Monroe said.

The grant would also be used for the replacement and dispersion of 134 public housing units of the Chouteau Courts into a 360 unit mixed-income housing. Monroe said they’re not putting all the housing in the Paseo Gateway target district. A portion of the funding would also go to two housing sites north of the Missouri River, as well.

“We have tried to scatter some of our public housing because it would allow us some opportunities to increase employment and education,” Monroe said.