Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby partners with Energize Delaware to inform landlords and minority-owned small businesses about energy grants.
Energize Delaware is accepting applications until July 31 from residential landlords for Rental Energy Assistance Grants up to $20,000 -- and from minority-owned small businesses for up to $25,000 for Spark Grants.
The Rental Energy Assistance Grant provides financial support to residential landlords in low and moderate income communities for energy efficiency improvements.
Those grants will go to 25 landlords statewide, and Darby wants to improve the city’s relationship with landlords - saying not all landlords are bad.
"There are some landlords who cannot get access to capital, right, and when you have that issue where there's lack of access to capital there's even some landlords who are not able to fix up their property. So I think this balances out the playing field for landlords who are low-income, who don't have access to capital because of the area that they have their residential unit in."
Spark Grants will go to 20 minority-owned small businesses and microbusinesses across the state, and include a one-year membership to the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.
That provides education on sustainable business practices.
Darby says these energy efficiency improvement grants can make a difference.
"So I think this is a game changer for the city. I hope that landlords in the city apply for it, and that just means better housing stock for renters. So it's a win-win for everybody in the city, and to also help small minority business owners is a win-win for the city."
More information on the grants - including how to apply- can be found at energyequityfund.org/grants/.
