The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority has until Nov. 22 to prepare a new HOPE VI grant application.

Housing authority officials huddled Wednesday with South Rome Redevelopment leaders, the city’s Community Development committee and Rome City Schools Superintendent Gayland Cooper to discuss ways to strengthen the proposal.

Stan Harvey of Urban Collage, the Atlanta-based consulting firm writing the grant, told the groups that additional commitments regarding the development of affordable housing choices and infrastructure to support housing across the 550-acre East Rome target area are the most significant needs for the grant application to be competitive.

NWGHA will seek $15 million from a national grant pool of a little more than $124 million. The grant funds would be coupled with $35 million in other public and private investment.

The city of Rome has pledged $2.3 million in infrastructure support. Citizens First Bank and United Community Bank have each committed $3 million for support of housing development. Georgia Power has allocated more than $877,000 for infrastructure work, while NWGHA and Appalachian Housing have pooled $1 million for support of housing development.

The plan contemplates demolition of the Altoview Terrace public housing complex. NWGHA is in the process of obtaining permission from HUD to take down the 95-unit housing complex off Spring Creek Street. NWGHA Executive Director Sandra Hudson said the demolition might not be completed prior to the Nov. 22 grant deadline to score additional points on the application.

Harvey said approximately 52 units would be reconstructed on the Altoview property, significantly reducing the density of housing in that area. The 95 public housing units lost to demolition will be replaced, in part, on that site, and other locations throughout the revitalization area.

Officials also talked at length about plans for the replacement of the old Anna K. Davie Elementary School, which was shut down in May, and its 150 students transferred to the Southeast Elementary School campus. Harvey said constructing a new facility for the merged schools would not score a lot of points for the HOPE VI application but would send a clear signal to federal authorities about the commitment to community revitalization.

“I don’t see us going back to eight elementary schools,” said Cooper. He said that at this point the school board’s intent is to rebuild on the old Anna K. Davie site, but told the group the school board is open to another location.

He said money was not included in plans for the new school building to acquire other properties. The officials determined between 6 and 11 acres would be needed for a new site.

The discussion then turned to potential use for the current Southeast Elementary building, which was renovated just three years ago. Cooper suggested it could be used for a variety of education purposes, including private pre-school programs, an adult learning center or use by local colleges that are straining for additional space and constrained by state budget issues. Housing Authority Director Hudson suggested Southeast Elementary also could be adapted for potential housing use.

The HOPE VI grants are designed to change the shape of public housing, reduce concentrations of poverty, develop broad based partnerships, establish strong supportive services and encourage personal and community responsibility and home ownership.

The application submitted for 2010 seeking $15 million did not get scored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development because of technical flaws in the application, which was overseen by Urban Collage.