Waters Expresses "Deep Concerns" over Promise Zones Program

Press Release

In response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) solicitation of comment on its controversial "Promise Zones" program, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) expressed her deep concerns with the proposed selection process and called on the Department to ensure that it does not leave our nation's hardest hit communities behind.

In a letter to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, expressed concern that the Department's current place-based, neighborhood revitalization initiatives, including Promise Zones, are not reaching many of the country's highest need, hardest hit communities. As a result, many communities are being left behind, a consequence that Waters stressed is "not only unacceptable, but also unsustainable, as many of our country's communities fall deeper into blight."

Waters pointed out that the Promise Zones initiative has flawed criteria for selecting program designees:

"As currently proposed, the second round urban criteria for the Promise Zones initiative is skewed towards neighborhoods that already have resources and strong partnerships in place, leaving little to no chance for many of our country's highest need communities to successfully compete."

Waters criticized the proposed application criteria for prioritizing existing capacity over capacity building -- and for not giving adequate consideration for the needs of a community.

She went on to make recommendations for a new Promise Zone program, proposing changes to the selection process that would specifically benefit communities such as South Los Angeles, by basing designation decisions on need, eliminating arbitrary population caps for Promise Zone applicants, and ending geographic diversity criteria that could leave behind many hard-hit neighborhoods, among others. She also called on HUD to find ways to increase the total number of Promise Zone designations in order to reach a broader number of communities.

Waters continued, "My recommendations call for a new kind of Promise Zones Initiative -- a program that refocuses efforts on those hardest hit communities that need federal support the most. I understand that resources can be a barrier, but with a need as important as revitalizing our poorest communities, it is incumbent upon the federal government to find ways to overcome such barriers. With ten federal agencies involved and billions of dollars in budget authority, the Administration should find ways to reallocate resources to lift up all of our poorest, highest-need neighborhoods. The core mission of HUD is to alleviate poverty, and if we are not working towards that goal for our poorest, highest-need neighborhoods, then we are not adhering to our mission at the most basic level."

Source