Connecting Magnet Schools and Public Housing Redevelopment: January 2023 Update

Poverty & Race Research Action Council's (PRRAC's) March 2021 policy brief, "Mixed income neighborhoods and integrated schools: Linking HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the Department of Education's Magnet Schools Assistance Program" (ED611507), highlighted an important opportunity for interagency collaboration, encouraging an explicit connection between HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) and the Department of Education's Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP). As the authors advocated with both agencies, if funding connecting MSAP and public housing redevelopment were incentivized by both HUD and the Department of Education, applicants could create plans for their communities that include a vision for safe, accessible housing, as well as neighborhoods and schools with diversity of race and income. The purpose of this update is to determine: (1) whether HUD and the Department of Education incorporated any of these recommendations to encourage the connection of MSAP and CNI or other public housing redevelopment projects; and (2) whether applicants responded to such encouragement.