The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded financial support to Empower New Haven ,as well as served as a valuble collaborative partner.

With a mission that is shared by Empower New Haven, HUD strives to increase homeownership, support community development and increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination. HUD embraces high standards of ethics, management and accountability and forges new partnerships - particularly with faith-based and community organizations - that leverage resources and improves HUD's ability to be effective on the community level.

The HUD website is one valuable resource offered by HUD. There are detailed maps of these communities and links to an address locator that businesses and researchers use to determine if an address is in an RC, EZ or EC. The HUD website provides information on the substantial tax benefits that are available to businesses that open, expand, or hire residents of these designated areas and there are descriptions of resources provided by other federal agencies to the designated communities in the fields of small business assistance, education, health care, youth services and more. It provides a history on the Empowerment Zone Initiative and details on current events and national best practices.

We encourage you to visit the HUD website:

http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/economicdevelopment/programs/rc/index.cfm

and we extend our appreciation to HUD for its ongoing assistance.