HUD AWARDS TULANE UNIVERSITY $950,000 TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM HEALTH HAZARDS IN THEIR HOMES
Grant to help make low-income housing safer and healthier for asthmatic children

NEW ORLEANS - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Tulane University a $942,788 grant to conduct research on the cost effectiveness of home-based interventions for children with asthma.
Nationally, HUD provided a total of $7.8 million in grants to 14 projects in nine states to protect children from exposure to lead and other home health hazards. Two million dollars of that amount will be used, for the first time, to improve indoor environmental conditions for asthmatic children and other residents living in public and assisted multifamily housing.

Tulane University will use its Healthy Homes Technical Studies funds to evaluate the North Carolina Cockroach Reduction Program for New Orleans inner-city asthmatic children. Tulane will partner with North Carolina State University for this study, which will determine the amount of reduction of cockroach counts and cockroach allergen in homes receiving the program's interventions, and then assess the impact that the interventions have on children's asthma control, including health care utilization.

"Asthma is now recognized as a leading cause of school and work absences, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations that disproportionately impact low income, minority populations," said Jon Gant, Director of HUD's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control. "Today's grants will not only help to clean up lead and other home health hazards, but will support the development of innovative new approaches to improve and control asthma in children."

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.