The Justice40 Accelerator Funds Durham Community Land Trustees to Pursue ILFI’s Core Certification and Promote Environmental Justice in North Carolina

“For far too long, environmental policy decisions have failed to adequately account for environmental injustice, including the disproportionate, disparate and cumulative impacts pollution and climate change have on low-income communities and communities of color. President Biden has made clear that his Administration will chart a new and better course, one that puts environmental and economic justice at the center of all we do.”

Shalanda Young, Acting Director of Office of Management and Budget; Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; and Gina McCarthy, National Climate Advisor

On January 27, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14008, which reaffirmed the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, developed a net zero emissions target for the United States, and established the Justice40 Initiative. The Justice40 Initiative is a whole-of-government effort to direct at least 40% of climate-focused federal investments towards disadvantaged communities. This means that all federal departments are required to come up with an individual plan for disseminating climate-related technical assistance, grants, or other forms of aid to frontline communities. The Initiative established focus areas of clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of critical clean water infrastructure. 

The Justice40 Accelerator is a collaboration among several non-profit funders, including Elevate, Groundswell, the Hummingbird Firm, Partnership for Southern Equity, and the Solutions Project, partnering together to optimize the federal funding opportunities that will be spurred from this mandate. The Justice40 Accelerator was born out of an understanding that grassroots community groups are going to need assistance navigating the federal bureaucracy in order to apply for these new opportunities. Tracking the opportunities and procedures to apply for them from the various federal departments can be daunting for nonprofits that may only have a handful of staff and potentially limited grant-writing expertise. One-third of the successful applicants to the Justice40 Accelerator have never before applied for federal funding. The funders behind the Accelerator provide grants for a variety of climate and environmental justice-related projects, as well as grant-writing, capacity-building, information briefings, and other forms of assistance in order to prepare groups to successfully apply for and implement federal funding. The Accelerator also provides intentional feedback loops to federal agencies, most of whom are not well-connected to local organizations that have critical knowledge of where funds are most needed and the barriers small organizations are likely to encounter when interfacing with federal processes. 

The federal Justice40 Initiative is a monumental and revolutionary funding opportunity that has the potential to greatly expedite on-the-ground work in the environmental justice movement. Sherry Taylor, Asset Manager at Durham Community Land Trustees (DCLT), expressed that there is much excitement around this Initiative, because nothing like this has been seen before. Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity says in an op-ed for the Hill, that while frontline leaders in the climate crisis are usually rooted in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, and other communities of color, these communities are often left out of federal funding due to embedded structural inequities. Smith explains that the Justice40 Accelerator was created to bridge the gap between on-the-ground organizations and federal agencies and ensure that the Justice40 Initiative funds are directed where they will be most impactful – “infrastructure of, by, and for communities affected worst and first by climate change.” 

The inaugural Justice40 Accelerator cohort was chosen in August 2021 based on several criteria, including a prioritization of human health, environmental, and economic impacts of climate change in under-resourced and overburdened communities; accountability to frontline communities and leadership reflective of those communities; and a commitment to improving quality of life in impacted areas through community-driven planning. The cohort includes 52 community-rooted organizations with a variety of missions including environmental justice, urban agriculture, and public health. The Durham Community Land Trustees, developer of Alma Street Commons, an ILFI Affordable Housing Pilot Project, was among the impactful organizations selected for this cohort. They will be using the funds provided to them to kickstart the process of a design that incorporates ILFI’s Core Certification requirements. This will  be the first affordable housing project designed to meet an ILFI certification in North Carolina. Read the interview with Sherry below to learn more about the Durham Community Land Trust and their participation in the Justice40 Accelerator and in ILFI’s Affordable Housing Program.

Susan Puri (SP): Can you give a little background on the Durham Community Land Trust (DCLT) and why you were chosen for the Justice40 Accelerator?

Sherry Taylor (ST): DCLT is an affordable housing provider that has been around for 34 years. We are a land trust, which means we ensure that homes are permanently affordable, both rental and homeownership. Our Justice40 grant was for the Alma Street Commons Project. I think we were chosen because of the way this project is being put together. It’s an affordable housing project, and we have been having a hard time identifying funders that see the intersections of housing, environmental justice, and health disparities. The project is located in a low-income, majority black and Latino neighborhood with significant environmental justice issues. There is a polluted creek and watershed, which feeds into the drinking water source for over 1.5 million people. It is a heavily industrial area with a lot of air pollution. In the 1950s, the government plowed a freeway through the neighborhood for urban renewal, as happened to historically black neighborhoods everywhere. There are a multitude of issues going on. The project was chosen by the Justice40 Accelerator because it will help us address environmental issues and climate change. The project can do a lot to prove that affordable housing can be sustainable and restorative in North Carolina. The project site in East Durham, though not industrial, currently hosts 3 substandard duplexes that have been an eyesore to the neighborhood and ultimately caused the relocation of folks living there because it was deemed unlivable. The new project will be 12 single-family, duplexes, and accessory dwelling units.

SP: Why did your organization want to be a part of the Justice40 Accelerator Cohort?

ST: Primarily because of capacity. We are a very small organization – there are just nine of us, including accounting and maintenance. Having the support of the Accelerator will help us to understand opportunities and sift through overwhelming information that is not well-organized. Right now, you have to go to each department’s website to look for grants and some have not even put their opportunities out yet. The Accelerator is bringing Washington to us – different speakers from different departments have already met with the cohort. 

SP: How will funding from the Justice40 Accelerator help you with the Alma Street Project?

ST: We received a grant for $25,000, which is the first grant we have received, although I have written a lot of applications and hope to receive much more to support this work. We are going to start the formal design process and communications plan and use marketing to garner more support and exposure. Last year it was hard to focus due to the effects of the pandemic, which required us to focus more on our current residents. We are about to bid for design services and create a design brief with our Core requirements.

The Alma Street Commons is the first affordable housing development in North Carolina to attempt an ILFI certification. However, Sherry intends to ensure that the project is not a one-off effort, and instead helps to spur a broader movement towards healthier, more regenerative, and more environmentally just housing in the region. Sherry and DCLT have been exceptional at building a larger coalition around the Living Building Challenge in Durham and in North Carolina. DCLT has partnered with the Duke University Office of Sustainability, Circular Triangle, and the Center for Environmental Health (in addition to ILFI). They are continuing to solicit partners and supporters for the project. Anyone interested in supporting this initiative or joining the coalition can contact Sherry at Sherry@dclt.org.