In terms of funding, if not actual policy development, HUD’s three major program areas have been very active players in the brownfield arena. The CPD (Office of Community Planning and Development) third of HUD, for instance, in FY ’06 spent over $331 million on property acquisition (including $7.4 million specifically on brownfield cleanup); $127 million on various economic development activities that included commercial/industrial rehab and construction, acquisition, infrastructure; $70 million on housing construction; $127 million on 108 loan repayments; and $1.5 billion on public improvements under its flagship CDBG program.

The Office of Public & Indian Housing (PIH) has also been a significant contributor. Since 1993 over $6 billion has been spent on rebuilding public housing through its HOPE VI program, and given that most public housing was first constructed in the 1940s and 50s on land no one else wanted, much of this rebuilding has included cleanup. ...

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