Springfield, Massachusetts, is receiving just under $20 million as one of a handful of U.S. cities to be awarded a federal grant aimed at helping communities identified as disadvantaged.
The Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grant Program was created under the Inflation Reduction Act to help local governments deal with persistent environmental and climate issues.
Eligible communities, the EPA said, have been "marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution."
At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, Mayor Dominic Sarno and many City Hall staff discussed Springfield's plans to spend the grant money, in coordination with the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts.
"It includes ... a climate navigator who will assist low income families on getting through the web of various incentives to help them green their homes," said Tina Quagliato-Sullivan, a co-writer of the grant and the city's deputy development officer.
Springfield also plans to use the grant funding to bolster workforce training programs that will be administered by MassHire and Springfield Technical Community College.
Other programs include better air monitoring technology, building two new heating and cooling centers that will be powered by geothermal energy, and up to 1,500 trees will also be planted around the Mason Square, North End and downtown areas of the city.