Houston Health Department Event to Kick-off $20 Million EPA Grant Efforts for Climate and Energy Resilience
The Houston Health Department (HHD) will be hosting the Trees and Trash 2025 Kick Off at Brewster Park (1800 Des Chaumes St.) on Friday, February 7, 2025, to initiate a series of events based on the $20 million Community Change grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Speakers at the event’s press conference at 10:30 a.m. include Mayor John Whitmire, HHD Director Stephan Williams and City Council Member Tarsha Jackson, among others.
HHD, EPA, Houston Wilderness, City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD), Houston Parks and Recreation Department and Black United Fund of Texas (BUFTX) will convene community members and volunteers to plant native Super Trees and clean up trash from illegal dumping throughout Fifth Ward to help fight heat, flooding and pollution. This is the first Trees and Trash 2025 event in a series that will plant approximately 400 Super Trees, with the goal of planting up to10,000 Super Trees in Fifth Ward by 2027, and combat illegal dumping.
The 15 different species of Native Houston trees provide: shade that cools the air; roots that soak up water and stabilize soil; and leaves that trap dust and pollutants. This project also continues to clean up the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) contamination through mycorrhiza, a plant-growth fungi, along with the deep-rooted Super Trees by naturally breaking down and/or storing the cancer-causing contaminants within the tree’s roots, respectively.
The Community Change grant from the EPA, a culmination of two previous EPA grants from the Vulnerable to Vibrant series awarded in 2023, will provide HHD and its academic, non-profit and community-based partner organizations with substantial opportunities to revitalize and build climate and energy resilience in the Greater Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens environmental justice communities of Houston. These communities have faced decades-long contamination from the neighboring Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) site.
The first of these grants is a $1 million award that will span three years. Project partners include HHD, BUFT, Houston Community College, My Brother’s Keeper – Houston, SWMD and Environmental Defense Fund. Through this grant, the partners will establish a free solar workforce development program that includes training for solar installation. Community members will be recruited for these trainings, which will take place within the Fifth Ward neighborhood. This initiative is part of the City of Houston’s plan to install and operate a community solar farm in the area and involve the residents in addressing environmental justice challenges.
The second grant, valued at $500,000, will be led by HHD in partnership with BUFTX, University of Houston Center for Sustainability and Resilience, Air Alliance, Houston Wilderness, and Rice University SSPEED Center/Fang Research Group. This grant will offer paid internships to residents for solar deployment to gain experience for job placements within their neighborhood. Additionally, it aims to establish a local solar hub for community use, particularly during weather emergencies, and increase efforts to advocate against illegal dumping.
The third grant serves as the final stepping-stone in establishing a community solar farm. This solar farm will provide clean energy while avoiding loss of power during disasters and provide free or reduced-price electricity plans through an energy rebate program to area residents affected by the decades-long EJ injustices of UPRR contamination. Furthermore, the community members who completed solar installation trainings and paid internship in the previous grants will be hired to construct the solar structure, creating long-term career pathways in green and clean energy in the community.
The goal of these initiatives is to ensure that HHD and its network of partners’ efforts in establishing a solar energy system will enable the community to thrive and maintain a vibrancy through nature-based solutions that will strengthen Fifth Ward’s and Kashmere Garden’s resilience.