A $350,000 federal grant awarded to the
City of Chicago Heights will kick-start a planning process to “transform” the city’s economically struggling Eastside-Downtown neighborhood, according to the city’s mayor, David Gonzalez. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on February 27 notified Gonzalez and the Housing Authority of Cook County that his city was one of six municipalities across the country to receive money under an Obama Administration-era a program that helps support urban renewal.
“HUD received 29 applications for the FY 2017 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants competition from across the nation and awarded 6 grants totaling $4,950,000,” wrote General Deputy Assistant Secretary Dominique Blom in a letter to Gonzalez. “You are to be commended for your efforts to develop a viable, feasible approach to plan for neighborhood transformation… Please click here to read David Ormsby’s story in the Tribune/Daily Southtown.