The Mercury News reports a major effort is underway in Downtown Sacramento to rebuild the Twin River’s housing project from the half-century-old enclave tucked away amongst industrial buildings into a more diversified and updated urban village.

The venture comes after a six-year-long effort with support from low-income housing advocates, business leaders, and City Councilman Jeff Harris, to confront “long-term, systemic poverty and a lack of housing for lower-wage earners.”

The theory behind rebuilding communities such as Twin Rivers is that “concentrated poverty” is replaced with families of different economic and social levels, allowing diversity to expand opportunities as well as ideological views. Likeminded renovations are already taking place in cities such as Chicago, Seattle, Boston, New Orleans, and San Francisco. 

The plans demand a complete tear-down of the entire community, with the 218 units of outdated and subsidized housing to be replaced with new and updated apartments. 200 of the current residents will have to temporarily relocate in phases, though they will receive help and guidance from Sacramento until the project’s expected completion in about five months. 

280 additional garden apartments and townhomes will also be added to the development.  These urban-style residences will be marketed towards middle-income buyers who might not be able to afford downtown or Midtown prices. Also included in the revised community will be a new park, pool, and grocery store. The addition of a light rail train station is possible but not guaranteed.

The $300 million project — $30 million of which was received from a seed grant in 2015 and the rest from tax credits, cap-and-trade funds, and other government grants — is part of the Choice Neighborhood initiative. 

The Planning and Design Commission is set to review the project design this month while the city council will review the tenant relocation plan in August.