Brownfields 2003 Grant Fact Sheet

Focus: Hope Revitalization, Detroit, MI

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

CLEANUP GRANT

$200,000 for hazardous substances
EPA has selected Focus: Hope Revitalization for a cleanup grant. The grant will be used to help clean up the deteriorated Federal Engineering Building at 850 Oakman Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan. Contamination of the site occurred during 45 years of use as a stamping press manufacturing facility. Assessments of the site have identified asbestos, transformers, process waste pits, sumps with unknown contents, and probable underground storage tanks.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

Focus: Hope Revitalization was selected to receive a cleanup grant. This nonprofit organization has targeted an obsolete structure in Detroit's inner city, left behind by the city's industrial past. The 2,550 residents surrounding the target site are predominantly minorities who suffer from a poverty rate of 43 percent. Cleanup of the site will provide access and parking for the adjacent Yellow Pages building, which will house Focus: Hope's Information Technology Center after renovation. Focus: Hope has established mechanisms for involving affected communities and has already reached out to the neighborhood surrounding the site.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 5 Brownfields Team
312-886-7576
http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields/

Grant Recipient: Hope Revitalization, MI
313-494-4306

Prior to receipt of these funds in fiscal year 2003, Focus: Hope Revitalization has not received brownfields grant funding.

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.