By Ben Brasch
A quarter of a billion dollars will soon be available for neighborhood-level improvements across Georgia.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced the new “Improving Neighborhood Outcomes in Disproportionally Impacted Communities” grant program Tuesday. The money will give hamlet-sized help to qualified neighborhoods for repairing parks, recreation facilities, sidewalks and access to healthy food.
The dollars come from federal COVID-19 relief funds, according to state communications staff, because these community elements have been shown to lower “levels of mortality and illness, both in regards to avoiding the spread of COVID-19 and other physical or mental ailments.”
The projects must sit within an area deemed by the federal government as a Difficult Development Area (a place with high costs for land/utilities and construction relative to the area median income) or eligible for a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit as determined by the feds in 1986.
Those interested which areas qualify can view a map on the state website at https://bit.ly/3KE8cSE.
The state will begin accepting applications starting on Sept. 1, which is three weeks before early voting begins in Kemp’s re-election bid against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
The grant application period ends Nov. 18, according to the news release. Each project may receive a maximum of $2 million.
Read the original story AJC.com.
