Charlotte will receive a significant boost of federal money to revamp one of its oldest and most decrepit public housing complexes, three years after the federal government rejected a similar grant.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is giving the city $20 million to tear down the barracks-style Piedmont Courts just north of uptown, Mayor Pat McCrory announced Wednesday night. New apartments and townhouses will be built at that site and throughout the Belmont area.

"That community has been starving for help and support for a number of years now," said City Council member Malcolm Graham, whose district includes Piedmont Courts. "This HOPE VI grant brings a brand new day for that community."

HOPE VI grants are designed to remake old-style public housing into safer, mixed-income communities.

Built in 1941, Piedmont Courts is a 242-unit complex off 10th Street. Living there is so undesirable that some residents seeking public housing chose to stay on the waiting list.

"By them getting the HOPE VI grant, this will cut out some of the chaos and clean up some of the mess they got here," said Lorine Moore, an eight-year resident.

Moore, 60, said sometimes she can hardly stand the smell from the communal trash containers, which are centrally located. She said she wants to spend her final years living somewhere with a porch and a pretty grass lawn.

Charlotte Housing Authority CEO Charles Woodyard did not know when demolition will begin, but new federal rules mean the grants must be used in five years. Previous Charlotte HOPE VI projects have taken up to 10 years to complete.

City officials touted the HOPE VI grants as part of a larger plan to revitalize the center city and the struggling Belmont area. Some replacement housing would be put along Brevard Street and Seigle Avenue.

"This is just a continuation of the community building we started inside the loop," Woodyard said.

Over the past decade, Charlotte has won three HOPE VI grants, worth a total $101.2 million. The money transformed Earle Village into uptown's First Ward Place, Dalton Village off West Boulevard into Arbor Glen and Fairview Homes in northwest Charlotte into The Park at Oaklawn.

About $18.5 million in city money would improve infrastructure on the Piedmont Courts site and remake streetscapes elsewhere in Belmont. The Housing Authority has also committed $3.5 million and the private sector plans to invest $97 million.

All residents will leave Piedmont Courts and will receive temporary public housing or government vouchers to rent on the private market. Eventually, at least 242 public housing units will be built.

But not every current resident will necessarily be eligible to move into the new buildings.

The city's plan calls for a mix of public and private housing at the former Piedmont Courts site. Proceeds from market-rate apartments and houses will support public housing construction.

Elderly residents can move back in. To qualify for the new public housing, non-elderly former Piedmont Courts residents must gain stable employment, repair or establish good credit and agree to leave public housing in five to seven years.

As part of the city's HOPE VI grant, local nonprofits promised to work with Piedmont Courts residents to repair credit and offer homebuyer counseling and day care assistance, Graham said.

The Housing Authority will provide relocation services and pay for residents to move.

Some residents Wednesday worried that the project would leave them out.

"If they build a place like that, you've got to be middle class and have a good job," said Annie Alexander, 43, who has lived at Piedmont Courts for 25 years.

Still, Alexander said the project filled her with optimism. Just a few years ago, before police stepped up patrols, she would not let her children play outside.

Montega Everett, a resident and Housing Authority board member, said the announcement brought cheers to the complex.

"For a majority of the people it will mean just a better, safer decent-looking environment, which is what most people want for themselves and their children," she said.

Charlotte won one of 24 grants out of 56 applications nationally and received the maximum grant.

The city also won $1.4 million to tear down the Belvedere Homes public housing complex off Rozzelles Ferry Road. Residents will be relocated to other public housing, Woodyard said.