Lead in Paint: HUD Seeks Comments on a New Grant Approach
Changing the way communities receive lead hazard reduction funds is significant, and this comment period could shape prevention efforts for years.
Changing the way communities receive lead hazard reduction funds is significant, and this comment period could shape prevention efforts for years.
Indy’s website takes lead hazard transparency to a new level by leveraging AI.
Momentum is building to replace the estimated 9 million lead service lines that still bring water to properties nationwide. To achieve the goal, we need to engage landlords and renters in the process.
EPA’s lead-safe work practices should be the norm. Unfortunately, they are not.
By August, the House and Senate appropriations committees are expected to consider HUD’s funding needs and pass funding bills for FY25. Congress should adopt an appropriations bill that addresses the statutory and administrative barriers that have hamstrung the program.
Successfully reducing children’s exposure to lead requires collaboration between all stakeholders: private and public; health, environmental, and housing; and federal, state, and local. Collaboration is particularly important when it comes to sharing data that helps identify homes that have already exposed children to lead so that the causes and underlying issues can be addressed.
EPA ordered a property owner of an apartment complex in a renovated old factory in Connecticut to assess and clean up lead-based paint hazards after the agency determined the hazards “may present an imminent and substantial endangerment” to tenants. The agency acted pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) as a backstop when the local health department lacked authority to address units where no young children lived.
This is the first time HUD has proposed a formula approach, saying it will “allow more efficient distribution of funding to the highest need communities, streamline the selection and award of grants for communities facing large lead paint problems.” The balance will be competitive and “open to a broader range of States, Native American Tribes, and communities with pre-1978 rental housing.”
Rhode Island held an impressive second annual Summit to End Childhood Lead Poisoning cosponsored by the state’s Attorney General and Department of Health. I was honored to be able to join about 200 people who participated in person on February 2.
The guidance, when fully implemented, should have a significant impact on cleanups where there are industrial and commercial sources of lead contamination, past or present.