Community Legacy Program

​​​The Community Legacy program provides local governments and community development organizations with funding for essential projects aimed at strengthening communities through activities such as business retention and attraction, encouraging homeownership and commercial revitalization.

Who Can Apply

The following entities may apply for Community Legacy funding for projects located in Sustainable Communities:

  • Local governments
  • Community development organizations (for example: county councils, community development corporations, main street organizations, downtown partnerships)
  • Groups of local governments sharing a common purpose or goal

Eligible Projects

Project should capitalize on the strengths of a community while addressing its challenges to revitalization and should help to achieve a local government’s Sustainable Communities Action Plan.  Many Sustainable Communities have demonstrated a need for reinvestment and Community Legacy projects should therefore aim to stabilize a community, reverse social, economic or physical decline or encourage sustainable growth.

Projects/activities typically include, but are not limited to:

  • Mixed-use development consisting of residential, commercial and/or open space
  • Business retention, expansion and attraction initiatives
  • Streetscape improvements
  • Increasing homeownership and home rehabilitation among residents
  • Residential and commercial façade improvement programs
  • Real estate acquisition, including land banking, and strategic demolition

Eligible Project Locations

Community Legacy funding can only be used in areas known as Sustainable Communities. Sustainable Communities are geographic areas inside of the Priority Funding Area targeted for revitalization by local governments.

There is a Neighborhood Intervention component of the Community Legacy program, to not exceed 15 percent of the Community Legacy fund. The Neighborhood Intervention component is intended to function as a preventative measure to address problem properties either in or outside of a Sustainable Community that have a negative impact in an otherwise largely stable community. Eligible applicants are Local Governments and Certified Community Development Financial Institutions.

How to Apply

Applications are evaluated based on need, community conditions, project/program scope, proposed timeline, budget, and organizational capacity. When the competitive round is open, the application can be found on the DHCD-N​R Project Portal​​.

More Information

To find out more about our programs, please contact your Regional Project Manager.

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