Revitalizing the Parramore Heritage Renovation Area: Florida’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program and Orlando’s Historic African-American Community. Housing Policy Debate 9(3

Housing programs increasingly contribute to broader community revitalization ef-forts rather than strictly serving production-oriented goals. As implementation of this strategy moves beyond the traditional housing leaders in cities such as Boston, Cleveland, and Baltimore, an assessment of other areas is instructive. This article examines how the nation's largest housing trust fund, which Florida directs pri-marily to local governments through the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), contributed to Orlando's ambitious community revitalization effort in the Parramore neighborhood. Given the consistency between SHIP goals and those of the Parramore project and Orlando's experience with developing partnerships and affordable housing initia-tives, SHIP should have proven an effective tool. The initial ®ndings demonstrate that housing programs need to be suf®ciently ¯exible to permit a comprehensive approach to neighborhood revitalization. Such an approach should seek a balance between product-based redevelopment and people-based housing strategies, expand the role of community development corporations, and create housing choice