Funding to improve methods to identify and control key residential hazards
WASHINGTON – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it is making $2 million available to support research to develop and improve methods for the identification and control of key residential health hazards. Key hazards include issues such as pest infestation, poor indoor air quality, injury prevention, mold and excess moisture, and lead in drinking water. It is especially important to protect vulnerable populations, such as children, seniors, and people with chronic illnesses such as asthma, from exposure to these hazards.
HUD Secretary Julián Castro is focused on advancing policies that create opportunities for all Americans, including helping children and families secure quality housing by protecting them from the hazards of lead-based paint and other home health and safety hazards. Unsafe and unhealthy homes affect the health of millions of people of all income levels, geographic areas, and walks of life in the U.S. These conditions affect the economy directly, through increased utilization of health care services, and indirectly, through lost wages and increased school days missed.
“It is critical that practical and cost effective methods be developed to make and keep the homes of Americans safe and healthy, said Michelle Miller, Acting Director of the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes. “We know that poor quality housing can contribute to injury and illness, which is entirely preventable. These important grants will improve our ability to create home environments that support the health of families.”
HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes promotes local efforts to eliminate dangerous lead paint and other housing-related health and safety hazards from lower income homes, stimulate private sector investment in lead hazard control, support cutting-edge research on methods for assessing and controlling housing-related health and safety hazards, and educate the public about the dangers of hazards in the home.
The grants to states and local governments, institutions of higher education, and both for-profit and nonprofit organizations are being offered through HUD’s Healthy Homes Technical Studies Grant Program.
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HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.
More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet
at www.hud.gov and http://espanol.hud.gov.
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Shantae Goodloe
202-708-0685
