Denver Housing Authority's Park Avenue HOPE VI revitalization project: community impact results

Abstract

In 2002, the Denver Housing Authority1 received a HOPE VI grant from HUD in the amount of 20 million dollars to raze and rehabilitate three “severally distressed” public housing communities. Named the Park Avenue HOPE VI Revitalization Project, the purpose was to create both low-income and market-rate housing in an urban environment along with recreation and business opportunities. An evaluation of the community impact of the project has yielded favorable results. Employing a quasi-experimental research design, analyses of the data collected revealed impressive outcomes in three areas. These include a decrease in overall as well as violent crime, increased home-buying activity, and increased property values within a quarter-mile radius of the Park Avenue HOPE VI site. Adding to the many evaluations of HOPE VI projects nationally, this article offers community-level results to further our understanding of federal housing policy and its effects on urban centers. 1Data and support for the study were provided by The Denver Housing Authority. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily shared by the Denver Housing Authority.