By Kalima Rose and Mona Tawatao
Last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), launched an unprecedented new program to help regions plan for sustainability. In October of 2010, nearly $100 million was awarded through a competitive process to 45 different regions to create and implement regional plans that integrate housing, land use, transportation, economic and workforce development, and infrastructure investments. This year, approximately $67 million has been allocated for this competitive grant process.
The theory underlying the Sustainable Communities Initiative is that economic competitiveness, social equity, and environmental and public health are interconnected and that all of these outcomes can be improved if regions better coordinate their public investments, including transportation systems, toward the goal of sustainability. Past development patterns have prevented regions from maximizing their potential. Low-income communities and communities of color are often isolated from economic opportunities because the only homes affordable to their members are in neighborhoods far from growing job centers, good public schools, and basic amenities like grocery stores and banks. Meanwhile, transportation and other infrastructure—critical to attracting and keeping jobs—is crumbling and the risk of climate change is growing.
PolicyLink recently published the 2011 Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Guide: How to Incorporate Equity into your Grant Application, an update of the inaugural guide released in summer 2010 in preparation for the first round of grants. The Guide provides information on how regions can incorporate social equity into their applications for the second round of funding for sustainable communities grants, which was announced this past summer. The second round grantees will be announced by the end of this year. While the Guide was written for local governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), nonprofits, foundations, and educational institutions who are interested in developing competitive grant applications, it contains helpful information, case studies and links to resources for any group interested in advocating for equitable and sustainable growth in its community.
What is equity and why does it matter?
Equity, by definition, means fair and just inclusion. Social equity is an important goal in its own right: ensuring that regions are becoming fairer and more just places where all residents can access and take advantage of the region’s economic, social, and environmental assets is a worthwhile aim of regional planning. But focusing on social equity is also imperative to achieve regional, state and national goals for economic competitiveness, public health, and environmental health—and it is becoming more so over time.
One reason this is the case is the rapid demographic transformation underway in the United States. The face of America is changing. The new Census 2010 data is proving that we are becoming a more diverse nation at a more rapid pace than we previously thought. In most regions, Latinos, Asians, and other nonwhite racial and ethnic groups contributed nearly all of our population growth (92 percent nationwide). By the end of this decade, the majority of youth will be people of color. And, by 2042 or earlier, we will be a majority people of color nation. This tremendous diversity can be a major asset to regions as they compete in the global economy, but we are not currently investing adequately in the new majority. In setting the blueprint for future development, regional plans need to ensure that all residents have access to the essential ingredients for economic and social success: living wage jobs, good schools, affordable homes, transportation choices, strong social networks, safe and walkable streets, parks and playgrounds, and nutritious and healthy food.
In addition, economists increasingly recognize that regions and nations that are more equitable also perform better economically. A recent paper jointly authored with the Center for American Progress, Prosperity 2050: Is Equity the Superior Growth Model?, summarizes how economic thinking about equity and growth has changed in recent years. Citing several economic studies, Prosperity 2050 challenges the long-held notion that economic and racial inequity is the trade-off for growth and posits, rather, that decreasing such inequities is the best pathway toward regaining and sustaining growth and prosperity in America.
Equity in the grant application
HUD has made equity a significant priority of the Sustainable Communities program. A recent analysis by Reconnecting America found equity to be one of nine common themes found in winning Sustainable Communities, Community Challenge, and TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) applications in the fiscal year 2010 cycle. There are several ways in which applicants are asked to demonstrate their approach for advancing equity in their planning grants.
Program Goals: the grant application suggests that regional planning efforts take into account social equity and access to opportunity through initiatives such as expanding location-efficient affordable housing opportunities, improving access to affordable transportation for all, and increasing access to educational opportunity
Program Outcomes: the reduction of social and economic disparities for low-income communities and communities of color; the creation of more inclusive communities; increased participation and decision-making in planning processes by populations traditionally marginalized in these settings
Program Design: from the creation of the consortium and governance structure to the types of activities selected to be incorporated in the planning process, HUD expects that applicants not only include low-income communities and communities of color in the process, but undertake specific measures that work to identify structural disparities and work to create pathways for prosperity for those populations with unequal opportunity; to demonstrate a commitment to meaningful engagement, applicants must show a process for community involvement, governance, and the inclusion of organizations that represent social equity concerns in the consortium; lastly, 10 percent of the total budget must be directed for community engagement activities
Understanding the PolicyLink Guide
The Guide seeks to help applicants for the regional planning grant program effectively address equity in their proposals . It reflects the best efforts of PolicyLink to offer resources that help applicants meet the guidelines, priorities, and definitions created by HUD, as well as highlighting promising practices in the field from the first round of grants and related fields of practice. Except where directly quoting HUD, it represents an independent attempt to offer understanding, interpretation, and advice based on 12 years of organizational experience advancing regional equity.
The 2011 Sustainable Communities Notice of Funding Availability released by HUD strongly reflects and is framed by the six Livability Principles adopted by the Senate, namely: 1) provide more transportation sources; 2) promote equitable, affordable housing; 3) enhance economic competitiveness; 4) support existing communities; 5) coordinate policies and leverage investment; and 6) value communities and neighborhoods. The NOFA also reflects HUD’s five Strategic Goals of its FY2010-2015 Strategic Plan, including building inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.
The Guide is organized according to the five Rating Factors of the FY2011 NOFA and offers guidance focused on the portions of the application that are relevant to equity concerns.
Kalima Rose is a Senior Director with PolicyLink and the Director of its Center for Infrastructure Equity. Mona Tawatao is Regional Counsel with Legal Services of Northern California and Co-coordinator of its Race Equity Project. This article was adapted from PolicyLink’s 2011 Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Guide written by Kalima Rose and her PolicyLink colleagues, Danielle Bergstrom, Athena Ullah, and Pamela Sparr.
