UPDATED at 11:45 a.m. with new details.
WELLSTON • The Obama Administration announced Tuesday that St. Louis has been named as one of eight new "Promise Zones," a federal designation that effectively moves parts of the city and county the front of the line in obtaining federal assistance aimed at tackling poverty.
It could unlock federal money and staffing for job training, educational programs, property redevelopment and transportation improvement in the designated region—which includes the Ferguson area rocked by civil unrest in recent months.
In a North County news conference, alongside top elected officials, federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said the program could reverse "years of disinvestment" in north St. Louis city and county.
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"We believe in the St. Louis community," said Castro.
Castro's St. Louis-area appearance was one of several by top administration officials, who were dispatched around the country Tuesday to announce the eight winning applicants out of more than 120 regions that applied.
This is the second year for the "Promise Zone" program. In 2014, the Obama Administration named five communities: San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
St. Louis has garnered more federal attention in the wake of the Ferguson unrest.
Gov. Jay Nixon, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, Wellston Mayor Nate Griffin and St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger attended the morning press conference at the Metropolitan Education and Training Center in St. Louis. Castro toured the center prior to the press conference.
"This is a defining moment for the St. Louis region," said Nixon.
The Promise Zone program does not directly hand out federal money. Instead, it provides local communities technical assistance, coordinated federal staff support and preferential access to certain existing federal funding streams. Promise Zone designations have a term of ten years, according to HUD.
The other communities announced as Promise Zone areas were: Camden, N.J.; Hartford, Conn.; Indianapolis; Minneapolis; Sacramento; and the states of South Carolina and South Dakota.