This agreement provides funding under the inflation reduction act (IRA)

This Cooperative Agreement award, provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Environmental Justice Government-to-Government (EJG2G) Program (CFDA 66.312), provides $1,050,000 in funding to the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers, New York. The purpose of the award is to increase the scale of green infrastructure practices across the Authority's affordable housing system. Key activities include converting 9 acres of land into natural biofilters to capture stormwater runoff, planting 218 native tree species, and training and empowering residents to facilitate community-led climate resilience action, education, and stewardship. The project aims to mitigate environmental and public health risks associated with climate change for historically disadvantaged low-income residents. The award period is from November 1, 2024 to March 28, 2025.

The agreement provides funding to the municipal housing authority of the city of yonkers. Specifically, the recipient will work with its nonprofit partners and its own residents to increase the scale of green infrastructure practices across its affordable housing system. The recipient will remediate an overburdened landscape by implementing green infrastructure at five of its affordable housing developments. Green infrastructure improvements include converting nine acres of land into natural biofilters to capture stormwater run off and planting 218 native tree species. In addition, the recipient will train and empower residents across its affordable housing developments to facilitate community-led climate resilience action, education, and stewardship. The project will mitigate the environmental and public health risks and harms associated with climate change for historically disadvantaged low-income residents.activities:to achieve the project goals, the grantee and its partners will conduct the following activities: engage landscape architects and assemble project team to create green infrastructure design documents; build the capacity of the residents of the townhomes to promote climate resilience over time through training, education, and stewardship efforts; one-on-one meetings with residents at all sites to create open lines of communication about the project; implement green infrastructure measures, as designed by the landscape architecture team, with significant contribution from trained residents and green team; creation and installation of educational materials for display at the townhome sites, with crafted language, signage, and associated education materials focused on the implemented infrastructure measure; and finally, enter into a maintenance contract for the upkeep of all green infrastructure installed. Subrecipient:the subawards shall be implemented through mulford housing authority (MHA), groundwork hudson valley (gwhv), and family services society of yonkers (fssy). MHA will take on the project management aspect, creating the request for proposal, meeting with the design consultants and writing the post construction case-study write-up. Gwhv will perform the resident engagement. This includes management of meetings and green team formation, as well as signage creation. Fssy will perform resident engagement and social services, including communication and education of residents and the necessary materials to carry IT out. Outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include the training and empowerment of residents of the municipal housing authority to facilitate community-led climate resilience action, education, and stewardship; plant 218 native trees; the conversion of nine acres of land into natural biofilters to capture stormwater and reduce runoff; and a case study write-up one year after implementation. The expected outcomes are: decreased runoff from around the townhome sites; slowing the rush of water into overburdened water treatment facilities and combined stormwater/sewer overflows; restoring more natural stormwater-runoff patterns; reduce flooding and ponding at these properties; increase in shaded areas for residents; RE-introduce native species; increase climate literacy and awareness about the importance of climate adaptation for residents; and provide climate resilience and adaptive job training opportunities for residents and the surrounding community. The intended beneficiaries include the residents of the municipal housing authority of the city of yonkers and the surrounding community.