FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: National Housing Law Project, 510-251-9400 x101, tespinosa@nhlp.org
Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Release of False HOPE: A Critical Assessment of the HOPE VI Public Housing Redevelopment Program

Despite years of promotion by the U.S. Department of Urban Development (HUD), a recent report identifies serious shortcomings and inconsistencies in HUD’s administration of the HOPE VI public housing redevelopment program. The report examines available HUD publications, General Accounting Office and Office of Inspector General program audits, and other documents to trace HOPE VI over its nine-year history. The report describes how HOPE VI plays upon inaccurate stereotypes about public housing to justify a drastic model of large-scale family displacement and housing redevelopment that increasingly appears to do more harm than good. 

False HOPE: A Critical Assessment of the HOPE VI Public Housing Redevelopment Program was prepared by the National Housing Law Project together with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Sherwood Research Associates, and Everywhere and Now Public Housing Residents Organizing Nationally Together (ENPHRONT). It is intended to contribute to the on-going debate regarding the HOPE VI program and its possible reauthorization by Congress. Current statutory authorization for HOPE VI is set to expire at the end of the current fiscal year. 

A program without clear rules or standards, HOPE VI is resulting in the forced displacement of tens of thousands of families and the permanent loss of large amounts of guaranteed affordable housing. In these and other respects explained in False HOPE, HOPE VI bears a striking resemblance to the Urban Renewal program of previous decades. 

False HOPE describes how all too often HUD’s administration of the program has conflicted with the basic purposes of the HOPE VI statutes and HUD’s own policies. The report provides specific documentation of HUD’s HOPE VI track record on the awarding of grants, citizen participation in redevelopment efforts, family relocation, data reporting, and other issues — and proposes concrete reforms. 

The full text of False HOPE is available from the National Housing Law Project website in Acrobat (.pdf) format: www.nhlp.org/html/pubhsg/FalseHOPE.pdf.