Press Release
The NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program Invests $350,000 in Five New Community-Led Resilience Projects Across the Estuary
New York, N.Y. (September 21, 2026) — The New York – New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP), funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and hosted by the Hudson River Foundation, announced five new grants totaling $350,000 to support community-driven resilience planning across the Hudson-Raritan Estuary. The selected projects will help communities better understand and respond to recurring extreme weather events and related water quality issues while advancing practical strategies for long-term resilience.
The new funding builds on an initial round of grants awarded in 2024, which supported community-led resilience planning and engagement in Newtown Creek, Paterson, Yonkers, Coney Island, and Mott Haven. The 2026 awards announced today support local governments, nonprofits, universities, and community partners working to move resilience ideas from early planning toward implementation, with a focus on flooding, stormwater challenges, urban heat, and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
The five projects selected for funding include:
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“Community resilience is increasingly important as extreme weather events become more frequent and intense,” said Rosana Pedra Nobre, Assistant Director and Water Quality Program Manager for the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program at the Hudson River Foundation. “By helping communities develop practical, actionable strategies in response to the challenges they are already experiencing, we are also advancing the Action Agenda’s vision of healthier waterways and stronger community partnerships.”
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In Red Hook, the new funding will help Resilient Red Hook broaden neighborhood resilience planning beyond coastal storm surge. The project will develop a community-driven workplan to address cloudburst flooding and extreme heat, two growing hazards that have received less comprehensive attention despite their increasing impact on daily life.
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“Red Hook has spent more than a decade planning for sea level rise and storm surge for the next Hurricane Sandy, but the flooding that we face on a regular basis comes from the sky, not the sea,” said Victoria Alexander, Executive Director of Resilient Red Hook. “This collaboration with the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program allows our community to create its own cloudburst and heat mitigation plan, built on residents’ lived experiences and real engineering, so that the people who know Red Hook best are the ones shaping how it adapts. Resilient Red Hook is excited to be working with thread collective, Ramboll, and the Red Hook community to create a vision for extreme rain events that also helps to reduce urban heat and provide improved open space and streetscapes.”
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In Edgemere, Queens, Regional Plan Association (RPA) will work with ReAL Edgemere Community Land Trust, government partners, and community stakeholders to connect resilience planning with housing, ecological restoration, and local capacity building priorities. The project will support a community-informed Action Plan for Resilience in this vulnerable Jamaica Bay neighborhood, with a focus on implementation-ready concepts with future investment potential.
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“Regional Plan Association is thrilled to be a recipient of the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program’s Building Community Capacity for Resiliency grant. HEP’s support will allow us to work in close collaboration with the ReAL Edgemere Community Land Trust, key government partners, and directly with community stakeholders to craft a community-led, open space vision for the land made vacant by Superstorm Sandy’s destruction in this important coastal neighborhood. Working at the parcel level, RPA, ReAL Edgemere, and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability will gather community input to develop strategies that maximize stormwater and coastal flood management, improve water quality, restore habitat, and expand public access, while advancing action plans for investment and stewardship to ensure the resilience of Edgemere in the face of extreme weather and showcase an approach for other neighborhoods throughout the Estuary,” said Robert Freudenberg, Vice President of Energy & Environment at RPA.
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At Flushing Meadows Corona Park, also in Queens, Waterfront Alliance will advance feasibility and pre-design work for daylighting Flushing Creek, a nature-based project identified through the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Resiliency Study conducted with NYC Parks. The effort will help move a long-term resilience concept closer to implementation while building community capacity around a project with potential benefits for chronic flooding, habitat, water quality, and park access.
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“The Flushing Creek watershed connects neighborhoods from Kissena Park to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, yet planning and investment decisions are too often made in silos, with limited opportunities for communities to shape the future of the watershed as a whole,” said Julie Raskin, President and CEO of Waterfront Alliance. “This support from the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program will help residents, community organizations, and park users come together around a shared vision for resilience, ensuring that future investments reflect the priorities and lived experiences of the communities most affected by flooding.”
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In the New Jersey Meadowlands, Rutgers University’s Center for Urban Policy Research and the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center will collaborate with the Meadowlands Research & Restoration Institute and P3 Collaborative to develop a regional flood hazard vulnerability assessment and pilot a consensus-building framework. The project responds to the need for regional approaches that help communities plan for and navigate complex flood resilience decisions across municipal boundaries.
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“The Building Community Capacity for Resilience grant program is supporting our teams’ efforts to develop a consensus-based approach to regional resilience planning in the Meadowlands region of New Jersey. Impacts do not stop at administrative borders, and a regional approach to resilience planning is necessary to effectively mitigate and adapt to these hazards and their potential impacts to the environment. We hope that the work our team will be conducting with this funding from the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program will provide a basis for similar approaches throughout the region and could be replicated in other regional planning areas across the state,” said Lucas Marxen, Co-Director of the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center at Rutgers University.
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On Staten Island, Nonprofit Staten Island will advance community-designed resilience in Midland Beach, a coastal neighborhood facing persistent flooding, stormwater challenges, and infrastructure vulnerabilities. Building on its Community Climate Corps model, the project will engage residents as partners in identifying local priorities, connecting with public agencies, and shaping community-informed projects.
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“Through Nonprofit Staten Island’s Community Climate Corps, we’re working to make sure residents aren’t simply asked what their communities need but have real pathways to help shape what happens next. This funding will allow us to deepen that work in Midland Beach, supporting residents in identifying hyperlocal resilience priorities, connecting directly with public agencies, and moving community-informed ideas toward action,” said Michelle Bascome, Director of Programs & Development at Nonprofit Staten Island. “We’re grateful to the Hudson River Foundation and the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program for supporting this work and for a growing partnership that helps bring Staten Island more fully into the regional resilience conversation.”
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The Building Community Capacity for Resiliency grant initiative advances priorities identified in HEP’s 2025-2035 Action Agenda, including support for federal, state, local, and civic efforts working to reduce coastal erosion and flooding, manage stormwater and cloudburst events, and advance nature-based resilience features. These approaches can also deliver important water quality, habitat, public access, and other co-benefits across the estuary.
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“Aligning community and agency resilience efforts will be critical to effectively addressing extreme weather impacts in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary” said Robert Pirani, Director of the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program at the Hudson River Foundation. “The work of these community partners is showing us all a path forward.”
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Click here to learn more about HEP’s community resilience grants.
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New York-New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program: The NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program engages people, partners, and communities to collaboratively advance understanding, improve stewardship, and enhance our shared waters and watersheds. Created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the request of the governors of New York and New Jersey, the Program is an ongoing effort to develop and implement a consensus-driven plan to protect, conserve, and restore the Estuary.
Hudson River Foundation: For over 40 years, the Hudson River Foundation has supported scientific research and engagement that has informed decision making to enhance the Hudson River, estuary, and watershed. The Foundation hosts the NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program, leading the implementation of its priorities under the direction of its staff, in coordination with its Policy Committee, and consistent with national guidance provided by the Environmental Protection Agency.