HUD Awards New Lead Grants
to Three Illinois Localities

Chicago, Kankakee and Madison County will be able to continue protecting children and families from potentially dangerous lead poisoning because of a Lead Hazard Control Renewal Grant awarded July 17th by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez.

Each community currently operates a highly successful lead hazard control program previously funded by HUD and will now be able to continue its work for another three years. The City of Chicago will be awarded $3,000,000 to continue its successful Chicago Lead Safe Homes Initiative. The City of Kankakee Community Development Agency (CDA) will be awarded $3,000,000 to continue its successful Kankakee Lead-Safe Homes Initiative. Madison County will be awarded $3,000,000 to continue its successful Lead Safe Madison County Initiative.

In addition to the HUD grant awarded today, each program expects to generate local funding to build upon their excellent work in controlling lead-based paint hazards.

With the assistance of over $1 million in additional local funding, the City of Chicago's Department of Public Health intends to provide lead-based paint hazard control intervention services in 200 additional eligible low-income privately owned housing units in the City.

The City of Kankakee, with the assistance of over $2.6 million in additional local funding, intends to provide lead-based paint hazard control intervention services in 240 additional eligible low-income privately owned housing units in the City.

With the funds awarded and assisted by over $900,000 in additional local funding, Madison County's Community Development Department intends to provide lead-based paint hazard control intervention services in 240 additional eligible low-income privately owned housing units in the County.

"These programs really are among the best of the best," said Martinez. "Each has demonstrated an ability to make their program a model for others in the country to imitate. In the end, more children and families living in low-income housing will be protected from potentially dangerous lead poisoning."

The funding is part of HUD's $176 million commitment this year to protect children from lead and other home health and safety hazards. Earlier this month, HUD also made available nearly $50 million in lead hazard control funding to communities with the greatest need. Areas with the highest lead-based paint abatement needs are defined as having the highest number of pre-1940 rental units and a disproportionately high number of documented cased of lead-poisoned children. This funding will help communities to pay for the costs of inspections, risk assessments, temporary relocations and controlling lead hazards in low-income, privately owned housing.

HUD's Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control grants are targeted to low-income privately owned homes most likely to expose children to health hazards. To learn more about HUD's Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Program, or to find out how you can protect your family from lead, visit HUD's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control.

Lead poisoning in children can reduce IQ, cause learning disabilities and impair hearing. Children who have elevated blood lead levels often experience reduced attention spans, are hyperactive and can exhibit behavior problems. At higher exposures, lead can damage a child's kidneys and central nervous system and cause anemia, coma, convulsions and even death. Nearly one half million of the nation's children under age six have blood lead levels high enough to impair the ability to think, concentrate and learn.

Since the landmark Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act became law more than 10 years ago, millions of children have been protected from dangerous lead. Though average blood lead levels have declined significantly over the past decade, one in six low-income children living in older housing is believed to be lead poisoned. Pregnant women poisoned by lead can transfer lead to a developing fetus, resulting in adverse developmental effects.

It is estimated that 26 million fewer homes contain lead-based paint compared to 1990 when the Department's Lead Hazard Control program began. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the average amount of lead in children's blood has declined by 25% from 1996-99. Ten years ago, there was no federal funding dedicated to lead hazard control work in privately owned housing; today, the HUD program is active in over 250 jurisdictions across the country.