MONROE, LA – The Monroe City Council gave approval for the Mayor Friday Eliss’s plan to submit a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy for 5 city neighborhoods. These plans will be sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“The goal is to improve housing,” explained Monroe’s Director of Housing and Urban Development, Ellen Hill. “How do we improve the quality of life? How do we stabilize the neighborhood?”
This plan will include five neighborhoods, including the Booker T. Washington, Sherrouse, Renwick, New Town, and Cotton Mills areas.
“This is an area that has gone neglected for a very, very long time,” said Councilwoman Juanita Woods, who represents several of the neighborhoods involved in the plan.
The idea is to work on the infrastructure, improve homeownership and increase the economic opportunity.
“It’s so important because as you drive through our communities, every other house is something where people have moved out,” Councilwoman Woods explained. “It’s been unkept, just to a point where it needs to be fixed.”
Services like skills training, daycare, after-school programs are meant to guide children in the right direction.
“This might be one of those opportunities to minimize crime in our communities,” explained Woods. “It will give our children, the residents, something to do.”
There is no word on how much or who will pay for specific projects.
