Climate Adaptation Resources focused on Communities of Color
This tab includes resources that address the disproportionate impacts of climate change for communities of color.
Resources are automatically presented by date. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by resource category, organization type of resource author, impact, jurisdictional focus, state, or region.
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Resource
2020
The 2020 report “Climate Change and Health in Oregon,” issued by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), describes the many health risks caused or exacerbated by climate change impacts that can harm the health of Oregon’s population, with special attention given to frontline populations. The report discusses risks to physical and mental health and covers cross-cutting risks such as economic impacts and displacement, as well as climate hazards such as heat, floods, fire, and disease. It also summarizes state policy actions on climate and health risks.
Resource Category: Assessments
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Resource
September 2020
The Town of Princeville, North Carolina, located in the Tar River coastal floodplain along the U. S. eastern seaboard, has become increasingly vulnerable to extreme flooding. Princeville has endured multiple catastrophic flood events brought on by powerful Atlantic hurricanes, including Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which flooded approximately 80 percent of the town. Part of the residential community is in the process of relocating to higher ground with hazard mitigation funding support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
July 26, 2020
The Oakland Community Land Trust (OakCLT), in Oakland, California, presents an example of how land trusts can help to reduce displacement pressures in gentrifying cities. It was created in 2009 to stabilize housing threatened with foreclosure as a result of the recession and mortgage crisis. Through mobilization of residents and a local community organization, Urban Strategies Council, the Oakland CLT was formed to acquire and rehabilitate properties in foreclosure. Since it was established, OakCLT has acquired and preserved approximately 50 units of housing and stewards multi-use and commercial properties that provide affordable rents for culturally important businesses and grassroots organizations.
Author or Affiliated User: Jessica Grannis
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
July 26, 2020
In Seattle and King County, Washington, the Homestead Community Land Trust (Homestead CLT) is helping to preserve existing and build new affordable housing that incorporates green design features. The CLT currently stewards 13 acres of land with more than 200 homes for low- and middle-income homeowners earning 80 percent or less of area median income (AMI). Recent projects have incorporated green design features to increase the sustainability of land trust homes. The CLT is currently building twelve “net-zero” energy townhomes in area Renton, WA near transit, which will reduce both energy and transit costs for homeowners and help the region meet greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Author or Affiliated User: Jessica Grannis
Resource Category: Solutions
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July 25, 2020
The Sawmill Community Land Trust (Sawmill CLT) in Albuquerque, NM provides an example of how CLTs can support community redevelopment and reduce displacement of existing residents. The Sawmill CLT was formed out of a community-driven planning process to redevelop the Sawmill-Wells Park neighborhood (between Old Town and downtown Albuquerque). The neighborhood had become blighted due to underinvestment and pollution from industrial facilities. The CLT’s first project, called Arbolera de Vida (Orchard of Life), was developed on a 27-acre formerly contaminated industrial property that it acquired from the city and facilitated clean up and redevelopment to include permanently affordable housing and other community amenities.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
April 23, 2020
The Greenlining Institute (GLI) is a nonprofit organization founded to advance economic opportunity and community empowerment through policy, research, organizing, and leadership throughout California. The Environmental Equity team works to address climate change, pollution, and poverty while ensuring that any investments or adjustments made as a result of their projects take into consideration community input in decision making and anti-displacement strategies. GLI and the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) co-sponsored Assembly Bill 2722, which created the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) program.
Author or Affiliated User: Kathryn Braddock
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
2019
The Jade Greening Initiatives refer to two concurrent initiatives to plan and implement targeted tree planting and greening in the underserved Jade District of outer southeast Portland, Oregon. Residents in the district experience significant economic and health disparities due to historic public disinvestment, its location surrounded by major transportation corridors on all sides, and lack of tree canopy and accessible green space. With assistance from community-based organizations, community members and businesses worked together to set priorities for neighborhood development and greening. Collaboration, planning, and design of new greenspace were supported through the EPA's Greening America's Communities Program and the Oregon Solutions Program.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
July 2019
The City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania addresses extreme heat and social disparities in its Beat the Heat Hunting Park Community Heat Relief Plan. The plan provides a roadmap of how to conduct an inclusive climate planning process through a community-based approach to combat urban heat emergencies. Beat the Heat was released in July 2019 by Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability (OOS), in response to increased heat being identified as one of the main climate change threats in the city. OOS found that communities, where low-income residents and residents of color reside, are also most vulnerable to the heat. To cope with the heat disparities, OOS initiated the Beat the Heat pilot project in Hunting Park, which was identified as the most heat vulnerable neighborhood. The purpose of the project is to learn the causes of heat disparities and utilize a community-driven decision-making process to generate possible solutions for staying cool in the future. The plan is a collaborative work effort of city agencies, Hunting park organizations, residents, and community groups. Through the community engagement process, three priority areas were identified: 1. Staying cool and safe at home, 2. Staying cool and safe in public spaces, and 3. Greening and tree planting. The plan also provides a step-by-step Beat the Heat Toolkit for other urban communities to reduce social inequities and build climate resiliency.
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
June 26, 2019
An Equitable Water Future: Louisville focuses on building equity in the infrastructure workforce, primarily the water sector, in Louisville, Kentucky. Local factors that influence water equity are described, including concentrated vulnerable communities that are disproportionality experiencing aging infrastructure, flooding and climate impacts, and barriers to participating in the local infrastructure workforce. The report outlines recommendations to address these issues that Louisville and other municipalities can take to advance sustainable and equitable utility management.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
April 29, 2019
In April 2019, Washington D. C. released its Resilient DC Plan as part of its participation in the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) initiative. The Resilient DC plan presents strategies to help the District address three-main drivers of change: economic and population growth, climate change, and technological transformations. It is designed to help the District manage threats from extreme natural and manmade disasters (including extreme heat, flooding, infrastructure failure, and terrorist or cyber attacks) and reduce chronic stressors that challenge the city on an everyday basis (including lack of affordable housing, economic inequality, educational opportunity gaps, and aging infrastructure).
Author or Affiliated User: Harrison Newton
Resource Category: Planning
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