New Bern’s $25 Million HUD Grant: What It Actually Means for Trent Court and the Rest of the City

New Bern HUD grant just made national housing news, and honestly, it’s a bigger deal than a lot of the initial headlines let on. The city is about to become the smallest community in the country ever to land a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, and the $25.1 million check is only the beginning of a much longer story involving four properties, three income tiers, and hundreds of families.

If you’ve seen the quick news blurb and are left with more questions than answers, you’re in the right place. Let’s break down exactly what’s happening, why it matters, and what comes next.

The Quick Version

• New Bern was awarded $25,115,577 through HUD’s FY2025 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant program.
• The money will help rebuild Trent Court Apartments, which Hurricane Florence badly damaged back in 2018.
• New Bern is now the smallest city ever to receive a Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant from HUD, according to New Bern Housing Authority leadership. WNCT
• The plan touches four sites total, not just Trent Court, and follows a “30-30-30” income mix model.
• Congressman Greg Murphy announced the award on Sept. 3, 2026, with New Bern’s Housing Authority confirming project details in the days after.

What Is a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, Anyway?

This isn’t just a housing repair fund. According to HUD’s own program description, Choice Neighborhoods leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. In plain English: it’s not just about rebuilding apartment buildings — it’s about rebuilding the whole neighborhood around them, including schools, jobs, and public safety. HUD

There are two flavors of this grant. Planning Grants fund the early strategy work — figuring out what a neighborhood needs. Implementation Grants, which is what New Bern won, are the much larger awards that actually pay for construction once a community has a finished “Transformation Plan” ready to go.

New Bern didn’t luck into this. The city and the New Bern Housing Authority spent roughly two years building that plan, called the Greater Five Points Transformation Plan, through community meetings, resident surveys, and design workshops before HUD ever cut a check.

Why New Bern HUD grant? Breaking Down the Award

The Smallest City to Ever Win This Grant

New Bern Housing Authority Executive Director Reginald “Reggie” Barner has been vocal about what this means for a city of roughly 35,000 people. Mayor Jeffrey Odham put the scale in perspective, noting that New Bern, with a population of about 35,000, receiving a $25 million grant is a genuinely significant achievement for a community this size. Choice Neighborhoods awards typically go to much larger cities — Birmingham, Alabama, for example, won a $50 million CNI grant in 2023 — so New Bern beating out bigger applicants is a real underdog win. WCTI 12

Who Else Got Funded This Round

New Bern wasn’t the only winner in this funding cycle. Per Housing Authority Director Barner, New Bern was one of four cities nationwide to receive a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant this round, alongside Oklahoma City, Gainesville, and Fayetteville, North Carolina — meaning North Carolina landed two of the four awards.

What Happens to Trent Court Apartments?

Hurricane Florence’s Lasting Damage

Trent Court originally had 218 public housing units. When Hurricane Florence flooded the property, 108 of those units went offline, forcing residents to relocate, and roughly 110 families have been living in the remaining units ever since — for close to eight years now. That long gap between the storm and an actual rebuild plan is a big part of why this grant matters so much locally. WNCT

Demolition and Rebuild Timeline

City officials expect Trent Court’s remaining buildings to come down later in 2026. Rather than demolishing first and building later, the plan flips the usual order: new mixed-income housing goes up first, and current residents move into it before the old Trent Court buildings are torn down and rebuilt. That sequencing matters because it avoids the classic “urban renewal” problem of displacing people with nowhere to go in the meantime.

What About Current Residents? Right of Return, Explained

This is the part a lot of coverage skips. Barner has confirmed that Trent Court residents have first right of opportunity to return once redevelopment is complete. In practice, that means families living there now aren’t simply being pushed out — they get priority placement in the new units once construction wraps. WNCT

The Bigger Picture: New Bern’s “30-30-30” Housing Plan

Here’s the part the original coverage barely touches: this grant isn’t just about one apartment complex. It’s funding what officials are calling the 30-30-30 plan — a mixed-income model where new developments are split roughly into thirds:

• 30% low-income housing
• 30% workforce housing
• 30% market-rate housing (with the remaining share reserved for flexibility)

Beyond Trent Court: Three More Sites in Play

The redevelopment footprint spans four locations total, according to WNCT’s reporting: Trent Court itself, land in the Duffyfield community, the former Days Inn Hotel, and the historic F.R. Danyus school property. The Days Inn site on Broad Street is targeted for groundbreaking around 2028, and city leaders are also working toward redeveloping the F.R. Danyus school building rather than tearing it down, given its historic status. WNCT

U.S. Rep. Don Davis framed the investment in broader terms, describing it as being about strengthening communities and families and keeping opportunity within reach for people across Eastern North Carolina — language that reflects the program’s dual focus on housing and neighborhood-wide opportunity, not just new buildings.

How the Money Will Be Used

Per the official Greater Five Points Transformation Plan hosted on the New Bern Housing Authority’s project site, the funding is organized around three pillars that HUD requires every Choice Neighborhoods grantee to address:

1. Housing — redeveloping Trent Court into high-quality, mixed-income housing Choicenewbern
2. Neighborhood — activation, placemaking, and economic development across the wider Greater Five Points area
3. People — support services for Trent Court families covering health, education, safety, employment, and mobility

That third pillar is easy to overlook, but it’s a meaningful chunk of the budget. Similar CNI-funded neighborhoods elsewhere in the country have dedicated tens of millions specifically to the “People” plan — job training, school partnerships, and support services — not just bricks and mortar.

Timeline: Key Dates in the Trent Court Story

Date	Event
Sept. 2018	Hurricane Florence floods Trent Court, knocking out 108 of 218 units
2025	New Bern Housing Authority updates its Transformation Plan and applies for the CNI grant
Early Sept. 2026	HUD confirms the $25,115,577 award; Congressman Greg Murphy announces it
Later in 2026	Remaining Trent Court buildings expected to be demolished
~2028	Groundbreaking targeted for the former Days Inn site
TBD	F.R. Danyus School and Duffyfield sites move through planning

(Dates for 2026 events reflect the current announcement; later dates are targets, not confirmed completion dates — unverified beyond what officials have stated publicly.)

Frequently Asked Questions

How much money is New Bern actually getting?
The confirmed figure from HUD is $25,115,577, though it’s commonly rounded to “$25 million” or “$25.1 million” in coverage.

Is this the biggest HUD grant New Bern has ever received?
By most local accounts, yes — officials have called it one of the largest single federal investments the city has landed, and notably, New Bern is the smallest community ever to win this specific grant category.

What is the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant program?
It’s a competitive federal HUD program that funds the redevelopment of severely distressed public or HUD-assisted housing while also investing in the surrounding neighborhood’s schools, safety, and economic opportunity.

Will Trent Court residents lose their homes permanently?
No. Current residents have first right of return and are expected to move into new housing before the old buildings are demolished.

What other properties are part of this plan besides Trent Court?
Three more sites: land in Duffyfield, the former Days Inn Hotel on Broad Street, and the historic F.R. Danyus School.

When will construction actually start?
Trent Court demolition is expected later in 2026; the Days Inn site is targeting a 2028 groundbreaking. Other sites don’t yet have public dates.

Bottom Line

This grant is a genuinely rare win for a city New Bern’s size, and it’s set to reshape housing across four sites, not just one apartment complex. If you live in or near Greater Five Points, the Housing Authority’s project site is the best place to track meetings and provide input as plans move forward.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@graph”: [ { “@type”: “NewsArticle”, “headline”: “New Bern’s $25 Million HUD Grant: What It Actually Means for Trent Court and the Rest of the City”, “description”: “A breakdown of New Bern’s $25.1M HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, covering Trent Court rebuild details, the 30-30-30 model, and site plans across Greater Five Points.”, “mainEntityOfPage”: { “@type”: “WebPage”, “@id”: “https://supportnewbern.com/new-bern-hud-grant-trent-court-redevelopment/” }, “publisher”: { “@type”: “Organization”, “name”: “Support New Bern”, “url”: “https://supportnewbern.com” } }, { “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [ { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “How much money is New Bern getting from HUD?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “The confirmed award from HUD’s FY2025 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant program is $25,115,577.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Will Trent Court residents lose their homes permanently?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “No. Current residents have first right of return and priority placement in the new mixed-income units before old buildings are demolished.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What other sites are included in the New Bern redevelopment plan?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “The plan spans four locations: Trent Court, land in Duffyfield, the former Days Inn Hotel on Broad Street, and the historic F.R. Danyus school building.” } } ] } ] }