Just like that, a visionary investment vanishes (2025)

It is with deep sorrow and mounting frustration that we announce the untimely death of a visionary investment in environmental justice and community resilience — the $20 million Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Change Grant awarded to San Diego Foundation, in partnership with the Environmental Health Coalition, to support Rooted in Comunidad, Cultivating Equity, a collection of climate-resilient projects that would preserve, protect and strengthen San Diego’s central historic barrios.

This transformative grant — the lifeblood of four ambitious community projects — was conceived on July 19, 2024, formally recognized on Nov. 25, and began its meaningful life on Jan. 6, 2025. It passed abruptly on May 1, 2025, after the federal government reclassified Environmental Protection Agency funding priorities, leaving behind stunned partners, halted progress and the unfulfilled hopes of thousands of San Diegans in the historic central barrios southeast of Downtown.

The grant was designed not merely as funding but as a force for equity. It lived to bring cleaner air, greener homes, zero-emission transportation, and pathways to careers in green industries to the communities most impacted by pollution and disinvestment. It aspired to make equity visible — on rooftops outfitted with solar panels, in free electric ride shares guided by bilingual drivers and in a job center where residents could train for a more sustainable future.

Instead, this promise has been cut short. The Holistic Healthy Homes project planned to retrofit 25 homes with solar panels, electric appliances, weatherization improvements and water-wise landscaping. It would have reduced household utility costs
while improving health. Its light has been dimmed. La Via Verde, an all-electric, community-run ride service with bilingual staff, was preparing to launch. It would have unclogged streets and opened doors to opportunity. Its keys now hang, unused.

The Workforce Development program was poised to connect local residents to jobs in solar, construction and climate resilience — careers with dignity and a future. Instead, the doors to the job center are shuttered.

And three zero-emission buses, destined to crisscross the neighborhoods with quiet efficiency, will now remain parked in the imagination.

This is not just the death of a grant. This is a disruption of progress, an insult to the residents of Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, Grant Hill, Stockton, Shelltown, Southcrest and Mount Hope — communities that have historically been overpolluted and underfunded.

We do not mourn quietly. This death was preventable. It was not caused by project failure, mismanagement or lack of community will. It was caused by a federal decision that disregarded the real and present needs of working families and communities of color who have long waited for meaningful investment.

To those who call San Diego home — you are the survivors. But survival is not enough. We must continue to raise awareness of the challenges in our communities. Please call on your congressional representatives and implore them to be the community-focused champions San Diego needs right now.

We will not allow the vision of Rooted in Comunidad, Cultivating Equity to die with this grant. We will fight to resuscitate these projects through alternative funding and community advocacy. Let this obituary also be a call to action. Do not let this grant’s death be in vain.

This article was originally published in The San Diego Union-Tribune.