Box 15, Folder 3, Document 31

Box 15, Folder 3, Document 31

s if fn %

c
oI “
ed a DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND ,URBAN| DEVELOPMENT
=, Hl 2 WASHINGTON, D.£, 2041
‘Aga 4

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR MODEL CITIES AND GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS IN REPLY REFER To:

0,

Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr. JUN 11 1969
Mayor of Atlanta e
Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Dear Mayor Allen:

In his press conference of April 28, 1969, Secretary Romney
made the following statement:

"The 10% population restriction on the size of the

_target neighborhoods will be dropped. . .. [T]his

'. « « does not mean that the program will be expanded
city wide within each city. Its purpose will remain
that of focusing resources on particularly poor and
blighted neighborhoods, but local officials will be
given greater latitude in drawing program boundaries
that conform to local conditions."

The Secretary's comments have been given widely differing inter-
pretations in newspapers and periodicals around the country. In
order to avoid any confusion I would like to expand a bit on the
Secretary's remarks.

Cities are certainly not required to expand their model neighbor-
hood boundaries. They will be permitted to do so in order to
remove arbitrary geographic limitations that prevent logical and
effective program development. For example, in one city a small
geographic area was eliminated from the model neighborhood in
order to meet the population limitation. This area is contiguous
to the model neighborhood, is a blighted area, with essentially
the same kind of population mix as the model neighborhood, and con-
tains only a few thousand residents. Expansion to include this
contiguous area would not materially affect the capacity of this
city to mount a program that will have substantial impact on the
neighborhood problems. This represents an artificial constraint
which may be removed, if the city seeks to initiate such a change.
Any addition to the model neighborhood must still meet all
statutory requirements. The additional area must be a
blighted one. The program for the expanded area must meet

all the statutory criteria, including the requirement that

the program achieve a substantial impact on the neighborhood's
problems. ;

No additional supplemental funds will be available for the
expanded areas. For most first round cities, this means that
new projects or extended projects in the new areas would depend
on funds from other than Model Cities supplemental grant funds.
All cities may find it difficult to assure the program impact
required by the statute if the model neighborhood is greatly
expanded unless substantial additional resources are available.
In most situations, however, as CDA's develop their capabilities
to plan, coordinate, and evaluate the program in their first
target area, much benefit could be derived from expanding these
activities of the CDA to those resources and programs presently
going into poverty areas of the city other than the present
model neighborhood.

This expanding role of the CDA as the program continues would
enable the cities to be in a position to better utilize additional
resources in the future as they may become available.

Any request for area expansion should set forth the. reasons there-
fore and demonstrate that the city has the capacity to administer

the program in the expanded areas in accordance with the foregoing
considerations.

Very truly yours,

ee TO ag we See 8 See \ te eam

Floyd H. Hyde