WASHINGTON - In an effort to help hundreds of communities comply with the nation's new lead safe housing rule, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is offering 200 free lead safety courses to thousands of maintenance workers and contractors in over 100 cities where there may be insufficient numbers of workers trained in lead-safe work practices.

"The nation's new lead-safe housing rule is designed to protect our most vulnerable and valuable resource - our children," said HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. "These one-day courses will provide workers the information they need to protect themselves, and to protect the children who will live in the properties they work on, from the threat of lead poisoning."

More than 10,000 maintenance workers and contractors have already registered for these courses. Successful completion of the HUD course will help satisfy some of the new federal requirements in the lead safe housing rule.

HUD's new lead regulation covers nearly all federally owned and assisted residential housing built before 1978, the year lead paint was banned for home use. For further information or to register for these courses, visit www.leadlisting.org or call HUD's Lead Paint Compliance Assistance Center toll-free at 1-866-HUD-1012.

HUD is also providing scholarships for approximately 2000 lead sampling or clearance technicians. The scholarships are available through 72 accredited providers that HUD has trained to offer the course. Sampling technicians perform clearance examinations after activities that disturb lead paint to ensure that fine particles of lead in dust have been properly cleaned up.

Certain training is required to perform a clearance examination since the test determines whether a house is safe for a family to re-enter after work has been conducted. People interested in attending this training course should check with their state regulatory agency to determine whether sampling technicians can conduct clearance examinations in their state.

Public housing authorities, community planning and development grantees, and other organizations involved in rehabilitation in federally assisted housing are invited to take advantage of this opportunity to train their employees as sampling technicians. For a list of the firms that are eligible to offer the scholarships, visit www.leadlisting.org or call the Lead Paint Compliance Assistance Center at 1-866-HUD-1012.

In addition to these free training opportunities, HUD's Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) is providing no-cost testing for housing covered under HUD's Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance Program. To date, more than 3000 property owners have requested lead-based paint evaluations. Requests for this free testing may still be submitted by calling the REAC Hotline toll-free at 1-877-406-9220.

Property owners who already have had lead paint inspections indicating that their properties were free of lead paint, can send their inspection reports to REAC for review. If the inspections are approved, the property may be exempt from the HUD's rule.

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