San Diego Foundation and Environmental Health Coalition have announced a $22 million award from the California Strategic Growth Council that will support climate-resilient projects to preserve, protect, and strengthen San Diego’s central historic barrios.

The organizations aim to leverage the grant, as well as $26 million in matching funds and other funding, to invest a total of $48 million in the barrios. The first implementation grant awarded through the Transformative Climate Communities program to benefit San Diego County since 2016 will support investment in green spaces, housing and transportation, community-led food production and distribution, and community centers, through San Diego’s central historic barrios, including the Logan, Stockton, Grant Hill, Mt. Hope, Sherman, Southcrest, and Shelltown neighborhoods. Developed with 10 partners, proposed projects include the Holistic Healthy Homes Program, which aims to improve indoor air quality through indoor electric and air quality upgrades, water-tolerant xeriscaping, and other home repairs; Via Verde Free Electric Shuttle, which will provide free, bilingual, on-demand electric vehicle shuttle service that delivers door-to-destination transportation in Barrio/Logan Heights; and Project New Village Community Gardens and Resource Center, a 12,000-square-foot food center designed to boost community-led food production, aggregation, and distribution.

“Our communities have not gotten the investment and attention we need and deserve, resulting in these majority-minority neighborhoods being some of the San Diego communities that are most vulnerable to climate impacts such as extreme heat and poor air quality,” said Environmental Health Coalition executive director José Franco García. “This grant is a critical step in empowering San Diego’s most impacted communities to determine how to strengthen their neighborhoods against the threat of climate change and pollution to breathe clean air, live healthy lives, and thrive.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/shakzu)