Provo selects neighborhoods for HUD grants

PROVO — Six neighborhoods will benefit from two annual U.S. Housing and Urban Development grants over the next fiscal year.

The neighborhoods selected to receive the funding this year are all in the older, downtown area, which locals call the Pioneer neighborhoods — Joaquin, North Park, Timpanogos, Franklin, Maeser and Dixon.

The neighborhoods must submit proposals to use the money in September and October, said Paul Glauser, Provo Redevelopment Agency director.

City officials are in the process of applying for $1.7 million in Community Development Block Grant funds and $1.4 million in a Home Investment Partnership Grant that it splits with Utah County and several other cities. Provo gets 48 percent of it, Glauser said.

Eight other Provo neighborhoods met HUD guidelines of low-to-moderate income but were not awarded funding. Those neighborhoods, which have been excluded from the funds for years while Provo focuses on lower-income neighborhoods, failed to meet Provo city requirements because they didn't have an action plan, according to the City Council.

The excluded neighborhoods are Riverside-Riverbottoms, Carterville, BYU, Oak Hills, South Franklin, Central, Spring Creek and Foothill. Some may have met HUD's 50 percent low-to-moderate income standard because of college students who live in those neighborhoods, based on the 2000 census, Glauser said.

HUD officials have 45 days to review the application before releasing the money to Provo.

E-mail: rodger@desnews.com