Grant funds will go toward installing air conditioning and heating units and planting trees in the area to address shade inequity
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, awarded $3.8 million to six environmental justice projects across Oregon on Oct. 24.
The Environmental Justice Government-to-Government, or EJG2G, program is one of two EPA grant programs to fund projects across the United States providing access to clean air, water and climate resilience solutions, including a nearly $1 million grant to Multnomah County Health Department.
The EPA granted Multnomah County a one-time, $1 million grant over three years to install air conditioning and heating units and plant trees to address shade inequity in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood. A Multnomah County report found the Rockwood neighborhood — a diverse community with higher poverty rates than the national average — has just 8% tree cover despite its close proximity to grocery stores, businesses and public transit.
“People are having to walk through this area on a super hot day with no respite, you know, and that can really stress your body out,” John Wasiutynski, Multnomah County office of sustainability director, said. “The other big factor is that it retains all that heat from the day, and so it radiates back out at night."
A heat map of the neighborhood shows higher temperatures along the main stretch of roadway than in nearby neighborhoods. As wildfires, extreme heat and cold winters continue to worsen, Wasiutysnki said Multnomah County is observing the social determinants of health and supporting projects that improve the built environment to account for the most vulnerable.
“We're seeing extreme weather more often, and we want to give people the resources to stay safe as that happens,” Wasiutysnki said.
The EPA grant will help the county install new heating and cooling systems to improve indoor air quality in homes through partnerships with local community health providers. Brendon Haggerty, Multnomah County healthy homes and communities manager, said addressing risk factors for heat illness like housing insecurity, diabetes, stress and other factors is an integral part of the county’s approach to environmental health and justice.
“We're trying to grow adaptive capacity — people's ability to cope with these things as they come, and some of that is just in improving baseline health,” Haggerty said.
Since 2014, 236 people have died due to extreme weather in the tri-county region, which includes Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, according to a 2023 Multnomah County regional climate and health monitoring report. During the 2021 heat dome, 94 people died in the region.
“We went for decades never having really more than one heat death in a year,” Haggerty said. “Usually, we'd have zero.”
The EJG2G is one of many programs appropriating the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, money to help frontline communities address the impacts of climate change. The program allocated $84.1 million to state, local and tribal governments across the country.
The related EPA grant program, Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Cooperative Agreement, also provided assistance to non-profit organizations across the state, including a fire education project in Southern Oregon and a green space project in Madras.
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