When Nashville applies for certain federal grants, its applications will now be moved to the top of the pile.
Officials announced Monday that the city was named one of thirteen federal “Promise Zones,” a distinction created by President Obama to give federal aid to fight poverty and crime.
There was unbridled excitement as Mayor Megan Barry spoke of her hopes for the city now that is has received this distinction. The city was chosen from 82 applicants. (View Nashville’s 41-page application to the Promise Zone program.)
“We look forward to the VISTA volunteers, the extra resources, the money that is going to flow like rain as we have this new opportunity,” Barry said.
The city does not yet know how much money they will be receiving from the federal government. The Promise Zone designation simply gives Nashville priority when applying for grant money.
The program also gives the city five volunteers — deployed to Nashville for 10 years — to aid in housing efforts. But the funding can go to a wide-range of initiatives. Promise Zones in other cities have used it to train and employ ex-convicts and to deliver healthier food to low-income neighborhoods.
The Metro Development and Housing Agency will lead Nashville’s initiative. Jim Harbison, MDHA’s executive director, drew on his military experience to describe the mission of the Promise Zone.
“It doesn’t matter about income or background,” he said, “you never leave anyone behind on the battlefield. you never leave anyone behind in housing.”
The Nashville Promise Zone includes 46 square miles, including an estimated 120,000 people living in the neighborhoods that surround downtown. According to a White House news release, the poverty rate in this area is 37 percent; it accounts for a fourth of all violent crimes in the city; and high school graduation rates are low.
Barry says the goal is to find, and then to invest in, Nashville’s pockets of poverty.
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