Choice Neighborhood Plan - West Ward Community Initiative

What is the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative?

In September 2020, the Greater Easton Development Partnership (GEDP), in partnership with the Housing Authority of the City of Easton (HACE) and the City of Easton, applied for and was awarded a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant for the West Ward neighborhood of Easton. This application identified HACE’s N. Union Street Apartments property as a Target Housing Site for redevelopment. The grant award of $450,000 will help the GEDP, HACE , and the City of Easton address the clear inequities that exist within the community and build significant positive momentum for revitalization.

The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) employs a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. The program helps communities by revitalizing distressed public (and/or assisted) housing while investing and leveraging investments in:

Well-functioning services and public assets
High quality public schools/education programs
High quality early learning programs/services
Public transportation and mobility
Improved access to jobs

The CNI will ensure that current residents will be able to benefit from this transformation by preserving affordable housing or providing residents with the choice to move in to affordable and accessible housing in another existing neighborhood of opportunity.

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is focused on three core goals:

Housing: Transform distressed public and assisted housing into energy efficient, mixed-income housing that is physically and financially viable over the long term.

People: Support positive outcomes for families who live in the target developments and the surrounding neighborhood, particularly outcomes related to residents’ education, health and recreation, safety, employment, and mobility.

Neighborhood: Transform distressed neighborhoods into viable, mixed-income neighborhoods with access to well-functioning services, high quality public schools and education programs, high quality early learning programs and services, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs.

Upcoming Meetings

Working Groups

Starting in late January 2022, we will be holding a series of topic-based working group meetings to develop projects for inclusion in the West Ward Choice Neighborhood Plan. The working groups will meet three times (3x) through March 2022.

We need your help to ensure the plan meets the needs of local residents! If you are a West Ward homeowner, renter, business owner, or community partner, we want to invite you to join one of our groups. Sign up for a Working Group

If you missed a meeting or would like to listen in, you can view each working groups’ recorded meeting via the links below.

January Meeting Recordings:

Equity and Inclusion | Community Health and Safety | Housing and Business | Transportation and Open Space | Art, History and Culture

February Meeting Recordings:

Equity and Inclusion | Community Health and Safety | Housing and Business | Art, History and Culture

Transportation and Open Space (in-person, not recorded)

Polling Results: Equity and Inclusion | Community Health and Safety | Housing and Business | Transportation and Open Space | Art, History and Culture

Meet Your Community Ambassadors

Hello, my name is Edith Adams. I’ve been a resident of Easton for 55 years. I’m a mother and grandmother. I have an Associates degree and have been a volunteer for several organizations. I’m proud and excited to be a Community Ambassador to assist with the planning and enrichment of our community.

Hi, my name is Brenda Williams and I’m a commissioner on the Easton Housing Authority board. I’m a 62 year old African American woman and lifelong resident of Easton. I’m a mother and grandmother who wants to leave the world better off than I found it for the generations to come.

Planning Grant Q&A

What do we hope to achieve with the Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant?

The grant will be used to move beyond the West Ward Neighborhood Plan in order to bring the community and planning partners together to create a viable and actionable Transformation Plan for the West Ward Neighborhood focused on affordable housing and the redevelopment of EHA property. The grant will also be utilized to develop and construct a catalytic early action project that will benefit all residents of the community. N Union Street Apartments includes 57 units of low-income housing. The CNI Plan will seek to replace 100% of those housing units within the neighborhood, or in other areas of opportunity as part of new mixed-income developments.

How will we work with the community?

When residents are genuinely at the center of a planning process, a unique outcome unfolds. Relationships become the focal point of the work. This is because for residents, planning is personal – it’s about their children, their families, their homes, their neighbors and their streets. It is about making their day-to-day lives better in real time. As we envision, design, and seek to implement the investment and physical changes necessary to revitalize the community, local residents will be engaged from day one, so that they can help to assume a leadership role in the process.

How long will this process take?

Once awarded the grant, the process to create the West Ward Choice Neighborhood Plan will take about two years and would be completed in late 2022.

How can this benefit the neighborhood in the short-term?

If awarded the grant, the planning team will dedicate approximately $150,000 to identify and build an “Early Action Project” in the Summer of 2021 that will have an immediate positive benefit for the community. We need your involvement to help come up with these important ideas!

Does the planning process include construction of new housing?

No, this process ONLY involves planning and the implementation of smaller “Early Action Projects.” Construction of housing, retail, and other larger improvements would happen later based on community input and available resources.

What is the CNI Implementation Grant?

Following completion of the CNI Plan, the GEDP and EHA will be eligible to apply for a CNI Implementation Grant, which could provide approximately $30 million towards Housing, People, and Neighborhood Initiatives.

Are there resident hiring opportunities as part of this process?

Yes, we will be looking to identify a set of Community Ambassadors to assist with resident engagement, data gathering and Plan feedback. Ambassadors would be provided a stipend for their effort.