Wednesday, August 20

Every winter, Ms. Yolanda boils water on the stove to keep her grandbaby warm.

That’s not a metaphor. That’s survival.

She lives in a public housing unit on Chicago’s South Side—brick walls, busted baseboards, and a heater that groans louder than it blows. She’s not alone. Across the city, thousands of families improvise their way through winter: taping windows, running space heaters that spike utility bills, cooking with gas just to take the chill off.

Meanwhile, just three miles north, luxury towers hum with smart thermostats, solar panels, and learning algorithms. The buildings talk to the grid. They track air quality. They even water their own rooftop gardens.

And so the question becomes: Who are we building for?

That’s what brought me to Chicago. Because if we can teach buildings to think, we’d better teach them to care, too.

🏚️ A Tale of Two Cities

Chicago’s skyline may be a symbol of ambition, but in neighborhoods like Englewood, North Lawndale, and Austin, the infrastructure tells another story.

• Public housing and older rentals bleed heat in the winter and trap it in the summer.

• Drafty walls, mold, and outdated wiring put families at daily risk.

• Wi-Fi? Spotty at best. Smart systems? Nonexistent.

• Tenants pay higher bills for less comfort and less safety.

The digital divide meets the energy divide. And while billions in federal funding are flowing through the Inflation Reduction Act, DOE Building Technologies Office, and the Justice40 Initiative, most of that money goes where the boilers already work and the managers already speak fluent “decarbonization.”

That’s the inequity. And that’s where ChiBlocks stepped in with a blueprint radical in its simplicity:

Retrofit housing for the people who live there, without displacement, with residents leading the upgrades.

🛠️ Who’s Behind ChiBlocks?

ChiBlocks is a coalition, not a developer:

• Brick & Beam – a Black-owned construction co-op training local tradespeople

• Green Grid Chicago – a tech-for-justice startup founded by a CPS grad and HVAC tech

• Tenant Councils – public housing residents organizing for dignity

• Youth organizers – determined to stay on their blocks, not be pushed out

Their plan? Code in the Concrete.

A pilot retrofit of a 24-unit building in North Lawndale that had filed 17 winters of heat complaints. The upgrades would include:

• Solar panels + battery storage

• Smart thermostats and radiant heat

• Building-wide Wi-Fi and digital diagnostics

• Air quality and mold monitors

• Paid training for residents to install and maintain the systems

This wasn’t gentrification. It was community-controlled modernization.

They had the trust. They had the team. What they didn’t have was $6.3M to make it real.

That’s where I came in.

🧠 Flipping the Script

When ChiBlocks called me, I asked one question:

“Is this about buildings—or power?”

They answered without hesitation: “Power.”

Good. Because this wasn’t going to be a grant pitch for another shiny “green building” showcase. This was going to be framed as:

• Public health intervention

• Climate resilience strategy

• Workforce equity pipeline

• Digital inclusion model

As a Master Grant Acquisition Specialist, I built the funding architecture like this:

Anchor Funding

• DOE Buildings UP Program

Stacked Support

• HUD Green & Resilient Retrofit Program

• EPA + DOE Justice40 Climate Funds

Strategic Co-Funding

• Google.org (digital inclusion)

• ComEd (grid modernization)

• Schneider Electric Foundation (training + tech)

This wasn’t about chasing dollars. It was about creating a coalition of funders who couldn’t afford to say no.

✍️ How We Framed the Pitch

We led with Ms. Yolanda.

Her boiled-water winters. Her grandbaby’s asthma. The loneliness of a heater that fails you year after year.

Then we showed funders what would change:

• Smart thermostats and radiant heat responding in real time

• Air quality monitors alerting residents before mold spreads

• Battery backups during outages

• Local residents paid and certified to maintain the systems

And the numbers sealed it:

• 18% lower energy bills in Year 1

• 50+ trainees certified in smart building systems

• 37% drop in emergency maintenance calls

We wrapped it all in story—not about luxury, but about staying. About reclaiming safety and dignity in the very buildings people call home.

💸 What Got Funded — and What Got Built

Three months later, approvals came like scaffolding:

• ✅ $3.8M — DOE’s Buildings UP

• ✅ $1.4M — HUD’s GRRP

• ✅ $500K — Google.org & ComEd tech donations

• ✅ $600K — Local workforce apprenticeship fund

Construction began that spring. No residents were relocated. Instead, they were hired.

• The Wi-Fi came online first.

• Then the solar panels.

• Then the new HVAC.

• Then the digital dashboards where residents tracked building energy use like checking the weather.

And Ms. Yolanda? She became a Community Energy Liaison, trained in diagnostics and serving as the bridge between her neighbors and the new system.

Her stove stays off at night now. Her grandbaby breathes easier.

🔑 Lessons in Justice Infrastructure

Here’s what I’ll never forget:

• Justice is infrastructure. Smart only matters if it’s fair. That means directing dollars where systems have failed longest.

• Residents > vendors. Training tenants builds resilience and keeps wealth in the community.

• Smart = caring. If the upgrades don’t uplift people, they’re just expensive gadgets.

🏙️ Ready to Code Your Concrete?

If your city has buildings that freeze in the winter, stifle in the summer, and squeeze families out of the digital economy—but also brim with people worth investing in—here’s the good news:

Billions are waiting for blueprints like this.

You bring the people. I’ll bring the funding map.
Together, we’ll code the concrete—with care.

— Mr. Grant Money
Master Grant Acquisition Specialist

🛍 Explore More

• Impact Stories – Mr. Grant Money Blog 

• Support the Work – Mr. Grant Money Store 

• Listen to Movement Music – Mr. Grant Money Music 

💬 Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever lived in a building that failed to keep you safe, warm, or connected? What would have made the biggest difference?

2. What would it look like if your neighborhood led its own smart building upgrades? Who would need to be at the table?

3. How can cities ensure climate and tech funding actually reaches public housing residents and low-income renters?

4. What matters most in “smart” infrastructure to you—lower bills, better health, or local jobs? Why?

5. What story from your block, school, or family could unlock funding for community-centered housing?