HUD Awards $4.8 Million to Protect Families from Lead and Other Home Health and Safety Hazards in East Orange
HUD Awards $4.8 Million to Protect Families from Lead and Other Home Health and Safety Hazards in East Orange
Funding to make low-income families’ homes safer and healthier.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded today nearly $140 million to 36 state and local government agencies in 19 states to protect children and families from lead-based paint hazards and other home health hazards.
The City of East Orange will be awarded $4,501,958 in Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program funding and $300,000 in Healthy Homes Supplemental funding totaling $4,801,958. East Orange will address lead hazards in 40 housing units providing safer homes for low and very low-income families with children. The County will also perform healthy home assessments in 40 units. East Orange will work with medical and social service providers.
“Today, we are renewing our steadfast commitment to improving the lives of children and their families,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “The funding provided today will enable communities to make the homes of families of limited means healthier, and improve their children’s school attendance rate, learning, and, eventually, job prospects.”
“Lead poisoning can forever hinder a child’s health and ability to learn. HUD remains dedicated to providing federal funding that ensures HUD-assisted homes are safe,” said Alicka Ampry-Samuel, HUD Regional Administrator for New York and New Jersey. “These resources go to families that may not otherwise be able to do the work themselves, and HUD is proud to assist these residents in need.”
HUD is providing these grants through its Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction grant program and its new Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building grant program to identify and clean up dangerous lead hazards and other health hazards in low-income families’ homes. These grants include more than $10 million from HUD’s Healthy Homes Supplemental funding to help communities with housing-related health and safety hazards in addition to lead-based paint hazards.
Matthew Ammon, Director of HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, added that “These grants continue HUD’s commitment to sustainable communities and providing healthy and safe homes for all. We are committed to protecting families from lead-based paint hazards and other hazards in their home.”
These investments will protect families and children by controlling significant lead and health hazards in over 3,400 low-income homes for which other resources are not available. The Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction grant program has two categories of competitive grants – awarding seven Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control grants open to local governments and most states, and 21 Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration grants open to local governments with large numbers of older homes, which are more likely to have lead-based paint hazards, and most states. The Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building grant program is awarding eight smaller competitive grants to state and local governments that have not had Lead Hazard Reduction grants, to help them develop the necessary infrastructure and capacity to undertake the larger programs in future years.
Awarding these grants contributes to HUD’s achieving its strategic objective to strengthen environmental justice by reducing exposure to health risks, environmental hazards, and substandard housing, especially for low-income households and communities of color. You can read the Fiscal Year 2022-2026 HUD Strategic Plan on HUD’s website.
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