Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, Inc. (The Housing Partnership) has been awarded a $500,000 grant through the nationally-competitive Project Reinvest for Neighborhoods program. A total of $27.5 million in neighborhood stabilization grants were awarded to 55 nonprofit organizations nationwide to help stabilize and revitalize distressed communities suffering from the direct and/or indirect effects of the foreclosure crisis.

“Grants like this are critical to assist us in extending affordable homeownership in areas where low- to moderate-income buyers may be priced out of the market,” said Julie Porter, president of The Housing Partnership. “At the same time, we are also committed to increasing community economic development by purchasing and demolishing problem properties in viable commercial corridors.”

Funds will directly benefit the historic Druid Hills neighborhood and the Statesville Avenue Corridor. Planned activities include the acquisition of blighted or vacant parcels for redevelopment, remediation of known environmental hazards on such properties and the construction of new homes to be sold to families earning 80 percent or less of Charlotte’s area median income.

As part of its holistic approach to community development and neighborhood stabilization, The Housing Partnership has invested more than $4 million in grants and private equity into revitalization activities in Druid Hills over the past three years. These efforts have led to additional investments including a new microbrewery relocating to the area, the planned redevelopment of the former Rite Aid site, increased homeownership rates and a new county pool facility opening in the neighborhood.