The San Diego Foundation and Environmental Health Coalition have been awarded $22 million by the California Strategic Growth Council intended to help preserve, protect and strengthen San Diego's central historic barrios, it was announced Monday.
The council awarded the funds as part of the Transformative Climate Communities grant to help fund climate-resilient projects.
"Along with our partners, we produced a unique application with a community-informed process led by a collective of regional nonprofits that included participation and feedback from 400-plus community members," said Mark Stuart, president and CEO of San Diego Foundation. "We are confident that through this grant, San Diego will become a much more just, equitable and resilient community."
The organizations hope to use the grant, plus $26 million in matching funds and other funding, to invest a total $48 million in the neighborhoods — Logan, Stockton, Grant Hill, Mt. Hope, Sherman, Southcrest and Shelltown.
"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 José Franco García, executive director of Environmental Health Coalition. "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."
According to the application, the funding will go toward:
— Tierras Indigenas Community Land Trust, a nonprofit working to purchase land in the Historic Barrios to "ensure the housing and buildings built will remain affordable and community-owned for future generations";
— Holistic Healthy Homes, a program run through a coalition of six community-based organizations to improve indoor air quality in 25 homes through indoor electric and air quality upgrades, water-tolerant xeriscaping and other home repairs;
— Trolley and bus stop improvements;
— Installing solar panels on the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center;
— Enlisting the Via Verde Free Electric Shuttle to provide free, bilingual, on-demand electric vehicle shuttle service;
— Adding a 12,000-square-foot food center to Project New Village Community Gardens and Resource Center "to support community-led food production, aggregation and distribution";
— Constructing Boston Avenue Park located along Boston Avenue to serve as a buffer between the I-5 freeway and the residential neighborhood, with eight-foot-high, vine-covered walls, two playgrounds, an off-leash dog park, pedestrian walkways, community art spaces and a bike path that will connect to the Chollas Creek bikeway; and
— Plant more than 700 trees in empty right-of-way locations in the project area.
