HUD AWARDS $1.5 MILLION IN GRANTS TO REDUCE HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARDS IN MARYLAND HOMES
Funding will remove or reduce health and safety hazards in homes

BALTIMORE - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $1.5 million in grants to children and families living in Maryland from health and safety hazards in their homes. The grants will support efforts to control asthma and allergy triggers such as mold, moisture, mitigate safety hazards in homes, and improve energy efficiency. Grants will also support research to advance methods for hazard reduction.

The grant funding announced today is part of $18 million HUD is awarding nationwide to clean up health hazards in thousands of homes, train workers, and increase public awareness about reducing and preventing health hazards in their homes.

"HUD is committed to providing healthy and safe homes as part of our mission to help make the nation's housing more healthy and sustainable," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "These grants will help communities to protect families and children from significant health and safety hazards."

The Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning will be awarded $930,000 in Healthy Homes Production Grant Program funds to implement comprehensive and sustainable Green and Healthy Homes assessment, intervention and education services that will leverage investments in weatherization and energy efficiency in low-income housing. This grant will produce 200 sustainable, healthy, safe, and energy efficient units where asthma episodes are reduced for at least 100 children. The Coalition will partner with the City of Baltimore (Housing and Community Development, Health, Social Services, and Health Departments, and Weatherization Assistance Programs), US Department of Energy, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Osprey Foundation, Baltimore City Sustainability Commission, University of Maryland Pediatric Center, The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, The Morgan State University School of Community and Public Health, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Maryland Department of the Environment, Baltimore Medical Systems, Total Health Care, Amerigroup, Priority Partners, Baltimore Gas & Electric, Healthy Neighborhoods, Environmental Justice Partnership, Freedom Temple AME Zion Church, East Baltimore Development, Inc., Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge, and Arc Environmental. For more information, contact: Ruth Ann Norton, Executive Director, Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, (410) 534-6447, ranorton@leadsafe.org

The National Center for Healthy Housing will be awarded $649,533 in Healthy Homes Technical Studies Grant funds to study the environmental and potential health benefits of a healthy housing intervention that combines energy conservation with improved ventilation and air shaft sealing in multifamily buildings. The study will characterize the health of occupants in approximately 120 apartments in a multi-family building undergoing energy and ventilation improvements in New York City. The building has 30 ventilation shafts; half will receive standard weatherization upgrades, and the other half will receive enhanced ventilation upgrades.
For more information, contact: David Jacobs, Research Director, (443) 539-4157, djacobs@nch.org

"This grant will protect the City's most precious resource, our children and future generations from the potential of lead poisoning and other hazards," said HUD Regional Administrator Jane C.W. Vincent. "HUD is committed to making the City's housing safe for citizens and this $2.5 million investment delivers on HUD's mission to preserving their health and ultimately, their quality of life."

The funding announced today will go to cities, counties, states and universities to eliminate dangerous health and other safety hazards in thousands of privately-owned, low-income housing units. These funds are provided through HUD's Healthy Homes Production, (HHP) Lead and Healthy Homes Technical Studies (LTS, HHTS), and Asthma Interventions in Public and Assisted Multifamily Housing (AIPAMH) grant programs.

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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. You can also follow HUD on Twitter at @HUDnews or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD's News Listserv.