The Lake Charles Housing Authority will be named the recipient today of $40 million in Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The federal funding will go towards the redevelopment of the Lloyd Oaks-Dixy Drive public housing family site in the mid-city neighborhood. It will fund people-focused programs, housing construction and neighborhood projects to improve and redevelop the 37-acre area — which includes Barbe Elementary School, the Lloyd Oaks public housing community, and residential properties by Dixie Drive and Creole, Lake and West 18th streets.

The housing plan portion of the grant includes the redevelopment of the distressed public housing site, which will become a high-quality, safe and green mixed-income, mixed-use community of more than 550 units. Of these, 240 are one-for-one replacement units.

New housing will be supported with new infrastructure and complemented with amenities like community space, a fitness room, parks and welcoming green spaces.

The neighborhood component of this initiative includes the addition of new parks and green spaces that will ultimately connect to the regional asset under development through the Just Imagine SWLA planning process. Plans include the Bayou Greenbelt Kayak Launch, improved sidewalks and crosswalks and a new destination park with a playground, trails and boardwalks.

“The residents of Lake Charles refuse to quit despite major storms and flooding the past few years. This resilience is the first step to rebuilding,” U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy told the American Press in announcing the grant award.

Cassidy said he worked closely with Mayor Nic Hunter and other local leadership to secure the funding and wrote HUD in support of Lake Charles’ application.

“In a state susceptible to natural disasters, the Choice Neighborhoods program can be a crucial tool to leverage private investment in redeveloping long-neglected communities with long-term resilience and sustainability in mind,” Cassidy wrote in a letter to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge urging her to consider the city’s application. “The economic hub of Calcasieu Parish, Lake Charles sits in an area of Southwestern Louisiana that has been repeatedly subject to devastating weather patterns. Due to these weather events, a great portion of available housing in the area has been decimated. Given the severe distress facing this community, the Mid City Neighborhood CNI project not only addresses the needed redevelopment of public housing, but also creates opportunity for comprehensive community transformation.”

Ben Taylor, director of the Lake Charles Housing Authority, previously told the American Press when applying for the grant that, if awarded, it would be used to focus on four pillars to make housing more stable for the Housing Authority’s clients: education enhancements, wellness and health, economic mobility and policy development.

“A housing authority our size, we wouldn’t qualify for a thing like this without having (Hurricanes) Laura, Delta, the ice storm and flooding,” Taylor said. “You have to have something catastrophic happen to you to be able to get in the game. We think it could be a real transformation for that area.”

Now with this federal funding, “the community will be able to restore and revitalize their neighborhood and help bring it back to wholeness with new economic opportunities,” Cassidy said.

Hunter said the announcement is a “major win” for Lake Charles.

“Combined with other disaster-related aid, the city of Lake Charles is now in a firmly positive position in the aftermath of recent natural disasters,” he said.