This State Program In Underserved Communities Is Becoming A Nationwide Model For Climate Action

Imagine a world where renters and low-income homeowners all have solar power, where electric buses and e-bikes are the norm for transportation, and where every neighborhood has tree-lined walkable streets and well-maintained alleys that can capture stormwater to boost local water supplies and ease flooding.

Versions of that world are emerging in some of L.A.’s most historically underserved neighborhoods as a result of grassroots community efforts supported by a partnership with the state that’s actually working.

The program, called Transformative Climate Communities, or TCC, was established in 2016 and launched in 2019 to fund neighborhood-level action to reduce the pollution driving the climate crisis, as well as help communities adapt to the accelerating impacts of global heating. The funding is specifically for communities that are overburdened by both pollution and climate impacts as a result of legacies of racism and disinvestment.

Three of the five flagship communities that received the first five-year grants from the program are here in L.A.: Pacoima, Watts and Ontario. Stockton and Fresno are among other communities that have also received grants.

According to an evaluation by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation released Wednesday, the program has made significant progress in providing local green jobs, creating avenues to implement community-driven climate solutions, and building trust between communities and government entities that haven’t always been partners. The UCLA program is tracking the progress of these five communities as they move forward with their grants.

Across those five communities, the program has led to more than 237 affordable housing units being built or in construction, 157 rooftop solar systems for low-income households, nearly 4,000 trees planted, paid training in green jobs for 211 local community members, among other things.

Funding community-driven action

Pacoima Beautiful, an environmental justice group founded in 1996 by a group of Pacoima mothers, is spearheading the projects in the northeast San Fernando Valley, which include:

• Designing three “mobility hubs” that establish bike share options and greening and beautification of well-used areas and sidewalks.
• Adding electric vehicle charging stations and 14 new electric buses that also run more often.
• Installing rooftop solar panels on 175 homes and retrofitting 35 homes with “cool roofs” to help alleviate temperatures and energy bills.
• Renovating David M. Gonzalez Park.
• Planting 2000 new shade trees.
• A “community resilience center” that can be a safe shelter for community members during disasters and power outages, as well as other projects including adding green space to streets and alleys that also helps capture stormwater to alleviate flooding and boost drinking supplies. 

Dora Frietz-Armenta at Bradley Plaza in Pacoima, a project that helped the group get state funds to further its work in the community. The renovated alley helps capture stormwater to alleviate flooding and boost drinking supplies, while adding green, walkable space to the community.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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These projects are rooted in a deep community engagement process led by Pacoima Beautiful, which is trusted in the community, said Dora Frietze-Armenta, lead project manager with the group.

“We are the first grantees to get this grant that isn’t being managed by a city entity, so it was pretty transformational,” Frietze-Armenta said. “It varies from other state grants in that it gives us more power in that sense and also gives us a lot of freedom to work with our partners and to troubleshoot issues when they come.”

To take on the climate crisis, many experts have agreed that unprecedented government action and partnership with local communities is needed, particularly in cities, which are now home to the majority of humanity. Their research has showed the climate crisis is a global problem that needs to be adapted to locally.

But mandating changes from the top down doesn’t always work — especially if communities don’t trust what’s being offered.

Flipping the funding script

Usually, after doing some level of outreach with communities, governments offer funding in a siloed manner for specific types of things — maybe energy efficiency, or street improvements.

But the structure of TCC flips that script, centering community interests throughout the funding process. That also helps “un-silo” climate action, which intersects with almost everything that touches our daily lives — from transportation, to housing, to water, to jobs, to local parks (or the lack of them).

“It becomes a one-stop shop for communities that want to pursue a wide range of climate action projects that achieves a combination of environmental, economic, and social benefits,” said Colleen Callahan, co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, which researches environmental policy and is in charge of evaluating the effectiveness of TCC as it moves forward.

“Instead of the government telling communities what they need and asking communities to apply for government grants, they're saying, OK, we're going put one grant and it's going to allow the communities to prioritize the projects that they want,” Callahan said. “There's definitely a demand for this type of program, one that allows communities to pursue their priorities to advance their vision for change.”

UCLA's Luskin School of Innovation estimates the impacts of the projects funded or partially funded by TCC in Pacoima and Sun Valley.

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Courtesy of UCLA Luskin School of Innovation

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A model for unprecedented federal climate spending

The federal government is allocating an unprecedented amount of money to fund climate action in local communities. One significant Biden Administration effort is the Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40% of federal climate, energy and infrastructure investments benefit communities that have been historically underserved and overburdened by pollution.

The TCC model is something the feds are looking at as they figure out how to implement that program, said Emily Breslin, communications deputy director at the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, which oversees the Strategic Growth Council, the agency that distributes TCC funding.

“It is really generating the kinds of equitable investments and impacts in disadvantaged communities and so we need to be scaling up to the federal level,” Breslin said. “Let's allow for our funding to be flexible enough to empower the vision of said community. You don't see that level of flexibility in a lot of public funding programs.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may look to TCC as a model to allocate the $3 billion dollars the agency is in charge of for climate and environmental justice action via the Inflation Reduction Act, according to Breslin, whose office and partners have been in contact with the agency over the last year.