Funds used for blight removal and new home construction in Druid Hills
CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 28, 2017 – Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, Inc. (DreamKey Partners) 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 DreamKey Partners. “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, DreamKey Partners 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.
ABOUT DreamKey Partners
DreamKey Partners is a broad-based, private, nonprofit housing development and financial corporation organized in 1988 to expand affordable and well-maintained housing and promote stable neighborhoods for low- and moderate-income families in the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The agency provides assistance to residents of its properties to more fully enter the economic mainstream and achieve independence.