Flint, MI — River Park Apartments residents and stakeholders are nearing completion of a redevelopment plan for the 180-unit, low-income housing complex on Flint’s northeast side.
Over the holiday, the Flint Housing Commission (FHC), which owns River Park, submitted an outline for redeveloping the complex to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The outline marks the first deliverable in a 2-year planning process for which FHC and the City of Flint received $500,000 in late 2022.
FHC officials have since said they plan to double the complex’s units through this planning process, expanding development beyond the 1-to-1 requirement for affordable units into mixed-income options.
The commission’s ultimate goal is to use the plan to apply for a highly competitive Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant through HUD, funding from which would help make the final plan a reality.
Currently, the plan details the history of River Park and its greater Northeast Flint neighborhood, lays out the goals of residents and stakeholders, describes area demographics and recent investments, and identifies four possible sites for future development.
Those sites include River Park’s current location, which multiple residents said they prefer over a move elsewhere within the target development area.
“Hopefully this document accurately represents the feedback we have gathered thus far as this plan is to be a result of the input from residents and community members,” Jason Borror, FHC Director of Development, said in an email on Dec. 28, 2023.
Over the next year, Borror added, FHC will continue to host resident and stakeholder meetings to finalize the plan by the end of 2024, as well as implement “Early Action activities,” or small projects that can take place before the plan is submitted, such as playground improvements.
While progress is being made, two River Park residents told Flint Beat they still hope to see more of their neighbors take part in the planning process in 2024.
“I want people to see the change, and see River Park for what it really is,” said Audrina Biddle, who serves as one of the plan’s resident ambassadors.
Biddle, along with fellow ambassador Shenika Hamilton, said that the complex is a tight-knit community full of people who love living there but just want to see improvements to their current housing conditions.
“This could be a good home for any and everybody who’s out there,” Biddle said. “But they [River Park residents] have to be willing to participate in the stuff that’s going on now.”
Hamilton added that both she and Biddle realize motivation is difficult to muster when you may not be around to see the results.
“It’s a process and some people don’t see the outcome,” she said. “But it’s a fight for our community, and that’s why [it’s worth participating].”
Borror said the next deliverable for the project, called a “Transformation Plan” is due in June 2024.
“The draft in June should have the target housing site(s) identified as well as some of the goals for services and neighborhood improvements,” he explained.
That draft will then be refined to include housing types, number of bedrooms, etc. until the final plan is submitted to HUD in December, he said.
“To me, it’s making sure that whatever we deliver gives people the opportunity to improve their lives,” he said of the final plan. “Whether that’s through the housing, or through the services, or the things that are available to them in the neighborhood.”
More information on the Transformation Plan for River Park Apartments and its surrounding northeast Flint neighborhood can be found here.
certainly like your website but you need to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to inform the reality nevertheless I will definitely come back again
Thank you. If you ever see an error please notify our managing editor, Andre Ellington, at aellington@flintbeat.com and we will make a correction as soon as possible.