The city of Phoenix has raised water rates to the point where the average family is doing everything to cut back on usage and in some cases, seeking government assistance to cover their household bills.
So residents may start asking questions when they learn the city is dedicating millions of dollars to advance what it calls “tree equity.”
The Office of Heat Response and Mitigation is doling out grant money for tree and shade structure installation in qualified census tracts. The money will be “directed to increase tree and shade coverage for underserved communities.”
Communities with a poverty rate of 25% or more, or with 50% of households with incomes below 60% of the area median gross income can qualify.
The grants – Community Canopy, Canopy for Kids, and Shade for Students – are part of the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) Residential Tree Equity Accelerator and Trees and Shade for Schools Program.
According to the city of Phoenix the grants will:
- Advance justice, equity, and fairness of the local urban forest.
- Reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect and extreme heat of our changing climate (mitigation).
- Strengthen the resiliency of our youth in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic’s various shocks and disruptions (adaptation).
- Enhance play areas, green space, and corridors for students and school personnel to use comfortably throughout the year (mitigation).
Funding can only be used for trees, planting supplies, contracting and construction services, architectural supplies and inspections.
“With everything that government should be doing and spending money on, planting trees in the desert makes very little sense,” said one Phoenix homeowner. “They aren’t even planting the trees on the basis of what neighborhoods need trees, just in neighborhoods where people are poor? It makes no sense to me.”