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Kalamazoo climate group expands to tackle $18.9 million housing grant

Multiple two-story homes line one side of a paved road. Some houses have flaking paint, with snow, barren trees, and the odd patch of grass surrounding the buildings.
Michael Symonds
/
WMUK
Family homes sit in the West Douglas neighborhood, one of the four Kalamazoo neighborhoods that will see improvements under the grant.

The nearly $19 million grant will go toward renovating hundreds of homes in Kalamazoo, making them more energy-efficient. And as a result, one Kalamazoo group is hiring.

Hundreds of homes in Kalamazoo are set to get repairs through a federal grant. The funds come from the Environmental Protection Agency's Community Change grant program.

With the grant, the Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition, in collaboration with Kalamazoo County, is set to make 300 single-family homes more energy-efficient in neighborhoods including West Douglas and the Eastside.

The KCCC said these improvements will prevent the release of close to 700 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

To handle the scale of the project, the KCCC hired its first executive director, Jenny Doezema. And it’s looking to fill four other full-time positions.

Doezema said this expansion will allow the group to better address the expanding effects of climate change.

“It is the single most important issue for us to be rallying around right now, because it’s only gonna exacerbate every other issue we're already facing," Doezema said.

In addition to the housing improvements, the grant will be used to fund workforce skill training, with the goal of creating a pipeline of skilled trade workers for green contractors.

Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.

Report for America national service program corps member Michael Symonds joined WMUK’s staff in 2023. He covers the “rural meets metro” beat, reporting stories that link seemingly disparate parts of Southwest Michigan.