The City of Tucson, Arizona is working to alleviate urban heat islands, which will be exacerbated by climate change, in lower-income neighborhoods through a Low-Income Rainwater Harvesting Program. While Tucson had previously promoted rainwater-harvesting programs through rebates, these were not affordable or accessible for its lower-income and Latinx communities, who are most vulnerable to heat stress and the effects of rising temperatures. Maps developed by the city and county showed that the lower-income neighborhoods, mostly on the south side of Tucson, had significantly less tree canopy than more affluent neighborhoods. As a result, south side neighborhoods can be up to five degrees hotter than the greener north side. To address this challenge, in 2016 the city provided a grant to the Sonora Environmental Research Institute (SERI) to administer a program to make funding available to lower-income Tucson citizens to install rainwater capture systems. Depending on household income, the program provides zero-interest loans of up to $2,000 and grants of up to $400 for the installation of the rainwater harvesting system to facilitate watering of trees and other landscaping to reduce heat islands.  As a result of this program, since 2018 over 100 harvesting systems have been successfully installed in low-income households.

Through its Million Trees Miami initiative, Miami-Dade County is prioritizing tree planting in low-income communities with low tree canopy which face the greatest threats from heat stress, as a result of increasing temperatures from climate change. The County’s 2006 Street Tree Master Plan set a goal to achieve 30% tree canopy in the county by 2020. Neat Streets Miami, a multi-jurisdictional county board, is working to implement this goal through the Million Trees Miami initiative. This initiative aims to plant 1 million trees in order to achieve the goal of 30% canopy cover to reduce urban heat islands in the County. Through a 2016 Urban Tree Canopy Assessment, the County found that higher-income areas had greater tree canopy and lower-income areas, including predominantly black and Latinx neighborhoods, had less tree canopy. As a result, the County is prioritizing tree planting in its most impoverished and low-canopy areas through initiatives like the Street Tree Matching Grant. 

In 2016 the Louisville Office of Sustainability commissioned a study from Georgia Tech’s Urban Climate Lab to map the hottest areas of the city. The study revealed that not only was Louisville’s urban heat island one of the most severe in the nation, but the hottest areas of the city were, not surprisingly, also where the most vulnerable frontline communities were located. The study recommended a variety of interventions, including policies promoting cool surfaces, increased vegetation, and energy efficiency strategies, with each of the interventions combining to be greater than the sum of each when deployed in the same area. One of the interventions that Louisville implemented was a rebate for cool roofs that property owners installed on their buildings. In order to ensure that some of the voluntary funding was allocated for low-income, more vulnerable areas, the office designated 70% of the funding to go to neighborhoods identified in the study as having the most severe heat islands. While rebates can be difficult for low-income property owners, the techniques used to target the program to areas of the highest need can be replicated in other places for grants or no-interest loans. The program was funded through a partnership with Louisville’s energy utility.