HUD grant will address environmental and safety hazards in low-income Black Belt homes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Steven McDaniel, (334) 206-5752, ADPH
Michael Rasbury, (205) 348-3967, UA SafeState

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) Bureau of Environmental Services, Indoor Air Quality and Lead Branch, and the University of Alabama were recently awarded a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Healthy Homes Production Grant (HHPG) to remove environmental and safety hazards from some of Alabama’s vulnerable and underserved communities.

The Healthy Homes and Healthy Communities in the Black Belt Region of Alabama Program will target approximately 150 low-income homes in counties that make up a portion of the Black Belt region of the state, approximately 27 homes per county with at least 15 in York. During the 42-month grant period, the program will identify and provide solutions for environmental hazards like indoor air quality, mold and moisture, pests, carbon monoxide, lead-based paint, asbestos and radon, as well as general safety hazards like indoor and outdoor structural issues.

The HHPG project area includes Choctaw, Clarke, Lowndes, Marengo and Wilcox counties as well as the City of York in Sumter County. If you live in the City of York, contact Steven McDaniel, (334) 206-5752, ADPH, or Michael Rasbury, (205) 348-3967, UA SafeState. The cities and towns outside the City of York, in Sumter County, are not in the coverage area for the ADPH, and the UA SafeState HUD Healthy Homes Production Grant.

Qualifying families in the City of York will receive a no-cost assessment where Healthy Homes inspectors from the UA SafeState Program will evaluate potential hazards and coordinate the improvement of the home, prioritizing environmental and safety hazards. Each of the participants can receive up to $10,000 for repairs designed to reduce or eliminate identified hazards.

ADPH and the University of Alabama’s goals and objectives for all applicants receiving a Healthy Homes Production Award will be to:

  • Maximize both the number of vulnerable residents protected from housing-related environmental health and safety hazards and the number of housing units where these hazards are controlled.
  • Identify and remediate housing-related health and safety hazards in privately owned, low-income rental and/or owner-occupied housing, especially in units and/or buildings where families with children, older adults 62 years and older, or families with persons with disabilities reside.
  • Promote cost-effective and efficient healthy home methods and approaches that can be replicated and sustained.
  • Build and enhance partner resources to develop the most cost-effective methods for identifying and controlling key housing-related environmental health and safety hazards.
  • Promote collaboration, data sharing and targeting between health and housing departments.
  • Ensure to the greatest extent feasible that job training, employment, contracting and other economic opportunities generated by this grant will be directed to low- and very-low-income persons, particularly those who are recipients of government assistance for housing, and to businesses that provide economic opportunities to low- and very low-income persons in the area in which the project is located.

For more information, visit alabamasafestate.ua.edu/healthyhomes.

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4/11/23