The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) Program is offering grants of up to $7 million to identify and remove barriers to affordable housing production and preservation. Barriers include, but are not limited to, restrictive regulatory, zoning, or land use policies; outdated procedures or permitting processes; inadequate or deteriorating infrastructure; and, a lack of financial resources, capacity, or economic investment.
These grants through the U.S. Department of Transportation seek to fund projects that reconnect communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating highways and other transportation facilities that create barriers to community connectivity, including to mobility, access, or economic development through Capital Construction and Community Planning grants. Projects may address removal of a dividing facility or planning studies to assess the feasibility of removing an eligible facility. Applications that benefit economically disadvantaged communities, improve climate resilience, and integrate planning will be prioritized.
In collaboration with the EPA, GHHI will award $40 million in grants, flowing from the Inflation Reduction Act, to fund 171 eligible projects in historically disinvested communities throughout EPA’s Region 3 (includes Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and 7 federally recognized tribes). To further ensure equity and transparency, the Project includes a dedicated Advisory Board comprised of 11 organizations which will provide outreach support, applicant engagement, and ensure equitable, transparent project implementation. To ensure subrecipients’ technical assistance needs are met, the Project will also include a dedicated team of technical assistance partners with subject matter expertise congruous to the projects selected to receive TCGM subgrants.
The Biden-Harris Administration has announced a new tool to help identify relevant information about a project area that is requested in Department of Energy (DOE) grants, including 48C energy community status and whether the project is located in a disadvantaged community. The Energy Communities IWG new Site Review Tool is a resource for manufacturers and investors interested in developing or expanding clean energy supply chain projects in energy communities and nationwide. The interactive map provides access to publicly available information on brownfields, facilities, nearby infrastructure, and community attributes, including federal incentives. The site review tool will empower community leaders and developers to promote investment in communities and encourage users to learn and explore a diverse range of investment options.
On July 23, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced Energy Communities AmeriCorps, a new project that will engage 150 full-time AmeriCorps members serving with the VISTA program in advancing locally designed economic development, workforce readiness, and environmental remediation plans in energy communities as they gain skills and experience for good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs.
The U.S. Economic Development Agency (EDA) Good Jobs Challengeis offering grants of up to $8 million to support sectoral partnerships that train and place workers in good jobs, advance industries in key technologies that fortify the economic and national security of the United States, and advance the competitiveness of the applicant’s region. Projects should create and support training programs that connect in-demand and emerging skills needs of employers with qualified workers and help workers find and keep good jobs that advance their chosen career path.
The grant application cycle for the third round of Chesapeake Gateways and Watertrails Network grants has opened with an application deadline of October 21, 2024. You can get more details about the theme and requirements at: https://www.nps.gov/locations/chesapeakebaywatershed/grants.htm.
The objective of the Brownfields Job Training Program is to recruit, train, and place unemployed and under-employed residents of solid and hazardous waste-impacted communities with the skills needed to obtain full-time, sustainable employment. This program promotes the facilitation of activities related to assessment, cleanup, or preparation of contaminated sites, including brownfields, for reuse, while simultaneously building a local workforce with the skills needed to perform remediation work that is supportive of environmental protection and environmental health and safety.
Celebrate your community’s success and enter your brownfields reuse project into EPA Region 3's second ever Mid-Atlantic Brownfields People’s Choice Reuse Award Competition!