AUSTIN, Texas — The White House is coming to a community near you!

Federal officials are touring the nation’s cities to work with neighborhoods facing environmental disparities. The initiative, Justice40, is making its way through Texas with a recent stop in Austin.

Federal, state and local leaders are meeting with communities and advocates in their own backyards. Amanda Carrilo and her neighbors live across the street from an airport fuel tank storage facility in East Austin

“We’re worried,” she said. “We’re worried how, of like, how we’re going to live, how it’s going to affect our health.”

Her predominantly Black and brown community is one of many that are at the front lines of the crisis.

Richard Franklin lives in Austin’s Colony. He says many of the kids living here struggle with asthma because of the poor air and water quality and lack of health care. The neighborhood is close to sand and gravel mines.

“Our kids were out here [with] red hands and so forth,” he said.

Now that President Joe Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act, these communities have access to federal funds to help with climate justice projects.

Susana Almanza is the director of the environmental justice nonprofit PODER, which organized and ran the tour in Austin.

“Forty percent of the investment from all the different departments, the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and so forth is supposed to come to grassroots, communities of color,” she said.

Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome is the senior director of environmental justice for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

“We can’t continue to do business as usual,” she said. “Particularly if we are going to begin to address and advance environmental justice for communities that have been suffering the worst; that have been disadvantaged, marginalized, and over polluted.”

Matthew Tejada is the environmental justice deputy assistant administrator for the EPA.

“For the first time ever, we have the political mandate, the political will to really start solving these generational, legacy issues that affect communities with EJ [environmental justice] concerns, communities of color, low-income communities, indigenous communities,” he said.

White-Newsome and Tejada see this tour as a real opportunity to right the wrongs these communities continue to face when trying to get support.

In addition to Carrilo and Franklin’s communities, a busload of about 25 people drove to several other communities and got a close-up look at some sustainable projects, like building energy efficient, low-income homes, and a newly acquired plot of land for solar energy development.

It was an eye-opening experience for all who attended, and for the community: They hope they are finally being heard.