HUD Awards Nearly $160M to Combat Housing-Related Hazards

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced the Capital Fund Housing-Related Hazards (HRH) & Lead-Based Paint (LBP) Capital Fund Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) awards. The NOFO provides a total of $157 million dollars, which 20 awards under Lead-Based Paint and 54 awards under Housing-Related Hazards. The purpose of the HRH and LBP Capital Funding is to provide funding to public housing agencies (PHAs) to evaluate and reduce residential health hazards in public housing, including lead-based paint, carbon monoxide, mold, radon, fire safety, and asbestos.

HUD’s funds will help get PHAs ready to comply with the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE)—a measure that improves HUD oversight by aligning and consolidating inspection regulations used to evaluate HUD housing across multiple programs. NSPIRE strengthens HUD’s physical condition standards, and fire safety, carbon monoxide, mold and moisture and lead-based paint are all standards that we enhanced with NSPIRE.

“American families deserve a safe and healthy place to call home. However, in many older homes, lead-based paint can be a serious threat to the health and well-being of children,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “This funding effort will help us identify homes where occupants are at risk of lead exposure and other health hazards, and build on our promise of a healthier, stronger country.”

This is the second award HUD has issued in the past month to 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, as HUD awarded nearly $140 million to 36 state and local government agencies in 19 states in early August to protect children and families from lead-based paint hazards and other home health hazards.

“Lead poisoning is an entirely preventable tragedy that dramatically impacts a child’s health and ability to learn,” said HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Richard Monocchio. “This funding opportunity will help families across the country protect their children from lead poisoning and exposure to other hazardous contaminants in their homes. Particularly in many of our neighborhoods with older housing stock, it is critical to identify and remediate housing units with potential lead-based paint to ensure our kids can grow up healthy.”

Click here for a full list of award winners.