![]() A comprehensive federal Department of Transportation program designed to spur transformative infrastructure projects in disadvantaged communities is set to launch this fall. What is being called the Thriving Communities Initiative will offer hands-on planning support making it possible for local officials, community partners, and transportation officials in high poverty communities to access support for the building of housing and transportation projects. To that end, the Transportation Department has just issued a Request for Information, asking for input from stakeholders most impacted by the program itself, as part of a process to connect federal funds with needed housing and transportation projects. “It is critical that we ensure disadvantaged communities can access those funds,” Polly Trottenberg, Deputy Secretary of Transportation, remarked in a statement, noting that all funding for the effort is coming through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. A separate press release from the DOT notes that “not every community has the same ability to leverage this once-in-a-generation investment.” More to the point, many Tribal and rural communities have often lacked the resources needed to access the very programs geared to facilitate local and federally funded housing and transportation projects. Congress has appropriated some $25 million for the Thriving Communities program, with another $5 million thrown in by federal Housing and Urban Development program. Specific awards to local governments under the program are expected to be announced later this year. By Garry Boulard
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