Remediation Of Home Health Hazards Target Of $147 Million In Grants
More than $147 million in grants have been awarded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to educate about and remediate home health and safety hazards. The grants will help 70 local programs around the country to remove lead from lower income homes; to stimulate private sector investment in lead hazard control; to educate the public about the dangers of lead-based paint; to fund model programs promoting healthier and safer home environments; and, to support scientific research into innovative methods of identifying and eliminating health hazards in housing (see attached list).
The funding includes $124 million to eliminate dangerous lead paint hazards in thousands of privately owned, low-income housing units. These funds are provided through HUD’s Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control and the Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration grant programs
In addition, HUD’s Operation LEAP (Lead Elimination Action Program) will provide $9.9 million to stimulate private sector contributions that will enable children to grow up in homes that are free from lead-based paint hazards.
HUD will also award $2.4 million in Lead Outreach grants to support public education campaigns on the hazards of lead-based paint and what parents, building owners and others can do to protect children. Further, $2.8 million will assist local research institutions to study ways to drive down the cost and increase the effectiveness of lead hazard identification and control.
HUD’s Healthy Homes Initiative builds upon the Department’s existing activities in housing-related health and safety issues–including lead hazard control, building structural safety, electrical safety, and fire protection–to address multiple childhood diseases and injuries in the home. The Initiative takes a holistic approach to these activities by addressing housing-related hazards in a coordinated fashion, rather than addressing a single hazard at a time.
Included in the funding announced today is more than $5.9 million in demonstration grants to help local communities identify and eliminate housing conditions that contribute to children’s disease and injury, such as asthma, lead poisoning, mold exposure, and carbon monoxide contamination. HUD is also providing more than $2 million in technical studies grants to support scientific research into innovative methods of identifying and eliminating health hazards in housing.
A breakdown of the funding is as follows:
Lead Hazard Control $ 74,440,466
Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration $ 49,675,000
Operation LEAP $ 9,935,000
Lead Outreach $ 2,402,972
Healthy Homes Demonstration $ 5,916,355
Healthy Homes Technical Studies $ 2,009,272
Lead Technical Studies $ 2,874,123
Total $147,253,188
