JACKSON ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $4 MILLION TO PROTECT ILLINOIS CHILDREN AND FAMILIES FROM DANGEROUS LEAD AND OTHER HOME HAZARDS
Funding builds on remarkable success of HUD programs in healthy housing

CHICAGO - Lower income children and families in Illinois will live in healthier homes because of more than $4 million
in grants announced today by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson (see attached grant summaries). The grants are part of nearly $168 million awarded around the nation to help local communities to conduct a wide range of activities to improve the conditions of families living in lower income housing, including:

• to remove potentially dangerous 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.

"Every family deserves a safe and healthy home to raise their children," said Jackson. "The funding we announce today will help protect children from dangerous lead, fund important research into healthier housing and will create other public and private investment to improve the living conditions of thousands of homes."

Lead Hazard Control Grant Programs

The funding announced today includes more than $145 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 $8.9 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 $1.9 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, $1.7 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 lead hazard control program has a remarkable track record. Since the program began in 1990, more than 26 million fewer homes have lead-based paint. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the
number of lead-poisoned children in the U.S. declined by half in the past decade. Today, HUD's program is active in over 115 communities, helping to clean up lead hazards in low-income, privately owned housing.

Healthy Homes Initiative

Every year, children are harmed or become ill at home from a variety of preventable health and safety hazards. For example, childhood diseases such as asthma can be triggered by excessive dust or moisture in the home. Simple
home repairs can often prevent injuries from scalding, electrical shock or carbon monoxide poisoning. HUD's Healthy Homes Initiative addresses a multiple of these and other childhood diseases and injuries in the home by taking a holistic approach and addresses housing-related hazards in a coordinated fashion, rather than addressing a single hazard at a time.

The funding announced today includes more than $6.7 million in demonstration grants to 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 investing more than $2.6 million to support scientific research into new ways of identifying and eliminating health hazards in housing.

The following is a breakdown of the funding announced today:

* HHTS - Healthy Homes Technical Studies Grant Program
   LHRD - Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Demonstration Grant Program
   LHC - Lead Based Paint Hazard Control Grant Program

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities, creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans, supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development as well as
enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet
and espanol.hud.gov.

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Board of Trustees - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, Illinois
Amount of Award: $576,896
Healthy Homes Technical Studies Program Awards
Contact: Charles F. Zukoski (217) 333-2187

The Board of Trustees - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be awarded $576,896. The study that is proposed by the applicant is a comprehensive, multi-faceted project that includes theoretical modeling, laboratory testing, and field-based testing. These steps are all required in order to get a full understanding of the impact of
the unvented gas appliances on indoor air quality as well as to allow for the extrapolation of the results to other realistic situations. The core of the project involves measurement of actual contaminant concentration in homes
under natural conditions. Testing will occur in central Illinois region during two winter seasons. 30 residences with unvented gas fireplaces are scheduled to be tested, each receiving a 4 to 6-day series of tests. No collaborating partners will be used.

Madison County, Illinois
Amount of Award: $782,654
Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Demonstration Grant Program Awards
Contact: Alan J. Dunstan (618) 692-6200

Madison County, IL will be awarded $782,654. The funding will be used to reduce lead hazards in Madison and St.
Clair counties (MCCD). The focus of the grant will be to concentrate lead hazard control efforts at pre-1940 rental housing in Madison and St. Clair counties in which children under 6 years of age are at greatest risk. The 22 state designated target areas with the highest concentration will be the primary focus point. The award recipient will
work with the Madison County Community Development Department, in partnership with the St. Clair County Intergovernmental Grants Department plans to complete 175 units assisting approximately 260 low-income children and their families. The matching funds, $878,827 will come from a SEP consent decree in Madison County, CDBG
funds in St. Clair County, and other various sources.

Illinois Department of Public Health
Springfield, Illinois
Amount of Award: $4,000,000
Lead Based Paint Hazard Control Grants
Contact: Eric E. Whitaker (217) 782-5830

The Illinois Department of Public Health will be awarded $4,000,000 in federal funds to reduce or remove lead-based paint hazards in 393 priority, low-income housing units in five target areas and 5 homes outside the target areas for
a total of 398 homes. Illinois was recently identified with the highest number of newly identified lead poisoned
children according to a survey by the National Center for Healthy Homes and the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. Only 14 percent of the children in Illinois outside Chicago are screened each year. However, the number
of screened children found to have elevated blood lead levels is higher in the target areas (11 percent) than in the rest of Illinois outside Chicago (7.9 percent). Almost 7 percent of all Illinois housing units are estimated to be at
high-risk for having lead-based paint hazards. Besides the applicant, other direct and administrative services will be provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health with support from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture Building Research Council, and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The Illinois
Department of Public Health will provide $662,444 in matching funds.