Competitive Grants - Reconnecting Communities & Neighborhoods

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant program is the first-ever federally dedicated initiative focused on communities that were divided by past infrastructure choices and reconnecting them for a better future with $1 billion dollars over the next five years.

The purpose of the RCP Program is to reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating transportation facilities like highways or rail lines that create barriers to community connectivity, including to mobility, access, or economic development. The program provides technical assistance and grant funding for planning and capital construction. Projects are intended to provide people with better connections to jobs and opportunities and allow residents of places that are today holding them back to enjoy a safer, healthier, thriving, experience in their neighborhood.

The RCP Program provides funding for two types of grants, Planning Grants and Capital Construction Grants:

• Planning Grants fund the study of removing, retrofitting, or mitigating an existing facility to restore community connectivity; public engagement; and other transportation planning activities.

• Capital Construction Grants are to carry out a project to remove, retrofit, mitigate, or to replace an existing eligible facility with a new facility that reconnects communities. 

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) and Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE) programs, have now been combined into one funding opportunity. Together, this combined program will be known as the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods (RCN) Program.

The RCN NOFO solicits grant applications for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot discretionary grant program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), and for the newly created Neighborhood Access and Equity discretionary grant program, established by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

On February 28, 2023, the City of Houston received $552,160 in federal funding through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant program for the Reconnecting Communities: Gulfton and Beyond Study.

The grant will fund a community-driven planning process to engage residents and design future connections between Gulfton and crucial destinations currently separated by freeways and busy thoroughfares. This study directly supports the City of Houston’s Gulfton Complete Communities Action Plan and will build from recently completed improvements to Hillcroft Avenue.

The Reconnecting Communities: Gulfton and Beyond Study will build on the recently completed Gulfton streets with new crossings, bikeways, and transit stops. The study will propose future extensions to connect to crucial destinations including new crossings, bikeways, and transit stops at the following locations:

• Wisdom High School
• Hillcroft Transit Center
• Mahatma Gandhi District
• Brays Bayou Greenway Trail

Other Texas City Awards:
City of Austin – Connecting Austin Equitably - $1,120,000

Related Links:

•   Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Grant Program
  US DoT Website
•   Reconnecting Communities: Gulfton and Beyond Study
  Engage Houston
•   Gulfton to be target of new federal pilot program for reconnecting areas cut off by transportation barriers
  Community Impact - 02.28.2023

Supporting Links:

•   Infrastructure Intro Page
•   Competitive Grants Intro Page
•   RAISE Grants
•   Safe Streets and Roads for All - Bissonnet
•   Safe Streets for All Near Northside & International Districts
•   Reconnecting Communities & Neighborhoods
•   No-Low Emissions Grant
•   Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Program
•   Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)