(New York, N.Y.) The E.P.A. is providing a total of $300,000 in grants and low-interest loans to the City of New York to clean up abandoned and contaminated properties. The backing is being awarded under the EPA's brownfields program, which helps communities assess, clean up, and reuse properties at which moderate contamination threatens environmental quality and public health and can interfere with redevelopment.
"Cleaning up brownfields sites allows abandoned and contaminated sites to be cleaned up and revitalized as new parks, new housing and businesses that create jobs," said E.P.A. Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. "This backing will protect the health of area residents, and will help revitalize neighborhoods."
Revolving loan funds supply backing for grant recipients to provide loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. When these loans are repaid, the loan amounts are then returned into the fund and re-loaned to other borrowers. This provides an ongoing source of capital within a community as the funds are provided to other grantees.
The City of New York will gain $300,000 in grants and low-interest loans to clean up sites being used for new housing in the Bronx. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development will use a $120,000 grant to construct a 57-unit affordable housing plan on 491 E. 165
th Street and 1052 Washington Avenue. This plan that will result in 19 affordable units and 38 units of supportive housing. Supportive housing is a combination of affordable housing and support services designed to help individuals and families following a period of homelessness, hospitalization or incarceration, or for youth aging out of foster care. The South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation will use a $60,000 grant and a $120,000 low-interest loan to build an affordable housing plan at 996 Washington Avenue that will result in 95 units to serve formerly homeless individuals.
There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated sites in the United States. The EPA's Brownfields Plan targets these sites to encourage redevelopment, and help to provide the opportunity for productive community use of contaminated properties. The EPA's brownfields investments overall have leveraged in excess of $20 billion in cleanup and redevelopment backing from public and private sources and on average, $17.79 is leveraged for every E.P.A. Brownfields grant dollar spent. The funds have enabled the support of 90,000 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment.
Information on the EPA's Brownfields Program, including backing opportunities, can be found at:
http://epa.gov/brownfields.
Follow E.P.A. Region two on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/eparegion2 and Facebook at
http://facebook.com/eparegion2.
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