DeKalb Soon to Release RFP for Hidden Hills

In May of this year it was announced that the Hidden Hills Community would be the beneficiary of a $5.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant awarded to DeKalb County. Since that time the county has been working to complete a request for proposal (RFP) for the project, a process that Chris Morris, Director of the DeKalb County Community Development Department, believes will be coming to a close in the next few weeks.

Once completed the RFP will be advertised locally as well as on the DeKalb County website. While Morris was reluctant to share too many details about the specifics regarding the RFP, she did mention that the county would be looking for companies that can help to “acquire, renovate and sell properties.”

Additionally DeKalb County is committed to creating jobs where possible for the local community during the course of this project; this includes contractors and others whose skills can be useful.

Once contractors have been selected for the project the county will primarily focus its efforts on renovating and selling foreclosed properties in Hidden Hills. While exact figures are hard to come by, Wendall Ervin, president of the Hidden Hills Civic Association (HHCVA) estimates that there are somewhere between 26 and 40 foreclosed properties within the community.

This number of foreclosed homes is not the highest in the surrounding area, but according to Morris, a community with a high foreclosure rate was not the primary focus of the grant.

"For this grant HUD really wanted us to focus on communities where we could make a true difference,” said Morris. “Hidden Hills has a very active neighborhood association and we knew that it was a place that with funding could get back to a positive position."

An additional focus of the HUD grant calls for 25 percent of NSP funds ($1.3 million) to be used to assist individuals and families whose incomes are either at or below 50 percent of the area median income (AMI). In metro Atlanta the area median income for a family of four is $68,000.

Morris shared that while the county was working with funds for the NSP1 grant, which had a similar requirement, they found that rental properties and apartment complexes were a good target market for this 25 percent of funding. While no determinations have been made yet as to whether they will use the same strategy for the NSP3 grant for Hidden Hills, it is a possibility.

All of the aforementioned are several steps that must be completed before the county can begin any actual work inside the Hidden Hills Community. Morris estimates that work on foreclosed properties will begin by the end of the year. In a proposal the county submitted to HUD in February of this year, the projected end date for this project was set at June 1, 2014.

So far the county has only had preliminary meetings with the HHCVA, but Morris said that as they move further along the county will “continue an on-going, collaborative approach with the community.”

For now Ervin is hopeful about the changes the NSP grant will bring to Hidden Hills.

'We're looking at this grant as a chance to draw our line in the sand," said Ervin. "This is as far as we're willing to let our neighborhood go."