From. HUD's Office of Policy Development & Research:
In 1940, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) in Columbus, Ohio, opened Poindexter Village, one of the nation’s first public housing projects. The 414-unit housing project was constructed on the former site of the Blackberry Patch, a successful settlement of the Great Migration and home to Black entrepreneurs, families, musicians, and community leaders such as Reverend James Preston Poindexter, a pastor active in the abolition movement and namesake of the public housing development. Over time, disinvestment spurred the decline of both the housing project and the adjacent Near East Side neighborhood, which became areas of concentrated poverty.
In 2014, HUD awarded CMHA a $29.7 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) implementation grant to redevelop Poindexter Village, distributing the funding across three categories: housing, people, and neighborhood. Through a competitive procurement process, CMHA selected McCormack Baron Salazar as the co-lead developer responsible for transforming the site into a 450-unit, mixed-income, multigenerational community. In addition, the CNI grant helped revitalize the Near East Side neighborhood by catalyzing economic growth and investment in other properties following the completion of Poindexter Village in 2020. Poindexter Village received the Novogradac 2021 Developments of Distinction Award in the Metropolitan Community Impact category.