20 ‘Promise Zones’ Would Get Tax Incentives to Improve Jobs, Education, and Housing

President Obama’s 2014 budget proposes to step up efforts to attack poverty by concentrating an array of government programs in specific geographical areas, building on existing programs that have attracted strong nonprofit and foundation support.

His spending plan would create 20 “Promise Zones” that would get tax incentives and government grants to foster improvements in education, housing, jobs, and law enforcement.

“We’ll bring all the resources to bear in a coordinated fashion so that we can get that tipping point where suddenly a community starts feeling like things are changing and we can come back,” Mr. Obama said in a recent speech.

Coordinated Effort

The plan would bolster both the Promise Neighborhoods and Choice Neighborhoods programs, which offer grants to anti-poverty projects in designated communities that can also attract nonfederal money.

Spending on Promise Neighborhoods, which provides “cradle to career” services to children and their families, would increase from $60-million to $300-million. The program now provides grants to projects in 17 communities that are headed by charities that work with schools, foundations, businesses, city officials, and others.

The budget for Choice Neighborhoods projects, which rehabilitate housing in distressed neighborhoods, would grow from $120-million to $400-million. The program now operates in 56 communities, often uniting nonprofits and foundations with business groups and city agencies.

Tax Incentives

The new Promise Zones would also offer almost $5.4-billion in tax incentives over 10 years to encourage companies to hire workers and make capital investments.

Administration budget documents say the communities would have to compete to win the Promise Zone designation by presenting plans that offer evidence of how they would achieve their desired outcomes, adding that both rural and Indian communities would be represented.

“The president is really being responsive to a huge demand,” said Michael McAfee, director of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, which offers advice to Promise Neighborhoods projects. He said more than 60 communities now have Promise Neighborhoods-like projects, far more than the grants program has been able to help.

But the proposal could face a tough haul in Congress. The Republican-controlled House has trimmed Mr. Obama’s previous spending proposals for both Promise and Choice Neighborhoods.