FACT SHEET: HUD HIGHLIGHTS NATIONAL HEALTHY HOMES MONTH

In June, the Department is emphasizing the importance of fixing hazards in homes to promote healthier living conditions and provide safe and affordable housing for residents throughout the country.

WASHINGTON - During the month of June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been actively promoting National Healthy Homes Month to raise awareness about the connection between housing quality and the health of residents.

This year’s theme of “Connecting Home, Health, and YOU” designed around efforts to educate families and communities about the importance of creating and maintaining a healthy home. HUD is seeking to raise awareness about the healthy practices tenants and homeowners can adopt to avoid home-based hazards, such as reducing moisture and mold, improving ventilation, controlling pests, and maintaining indoor air quality.

HUD is also announcing a variety of new programs and funding opportunities that will help improve health conditions for residents of federally-assisted properties. These include an investment of over $550 million in eliminating lead hazards, an initiative to expand carbon monoxide monitoring, and the implementation of a new model for inspecting federally-assisted homes, the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE).

Funding details:

• HUD announced a recent Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) which will provide over $700 million in grants to state and local governments for improving the health and safety of low-income families that live in privately-owned older (pre-1978) homes. This funding opportunity, made possible by HUD’s Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program, is one of the largest health and safety investments to date for privately-owned housing.
• HUD also announced a NOFO that provides $50 million to assist communities in building the capacity necessary to operate a full-scale lead hazard control and healthy homes program. This investment also comes from HUD’s Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building Grant Program, a program which was developed in direct response to feedback from communities. Applications are due June 27. You can download the application package from this program’s website on Grants.gov.
• Additional funding opportunities, including the Healthy Homes Production Grant Program and the Older Adult Home Modification Grant Program, will be announced this summer. You will find descriptions of these programs, when they are announced, through HUD’s Funding Opportunities homepage.
• Later this summer, HUD will announce the Combined Housing-Related Hazards and Lead-Based Paint Capital Fund (HRH and LBPCF) AWARDS. Over 100 applicants applied for approximately $171 million funding available for competitive grants to public housing agencies to evaluate and reduce housing-related hazards including lead-based paint in public housing. The purpose of the HRH and LBP Capital Funding is to evaluate and reduce residential health hazards in public housing, including lead-based paint, carbon monoxide, mold, radon, fire safety, and asbestos - part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to ensure that all Americans can drink clean water, breathe clean air, and live in healthy homes.

NSPIRE:

• For the first time in 20 years, HUD completed an overhaul of its inspection standards. The new NSPIRE model classifies which conditions, by item and area, are considered life-threatening, severe, moderate, or low risk, and establishes a three-year review cycle so that HUD can respond to the changing needs of its assisted-housing units and evolving industry standards. These standards focus on the health and safety conditions of resident units.
• The new NSPIRE Inspection Standards Notice has been published in the Federal Register and can be found here. The NSPIRE Standards were tested during an NSPIRE Demonstration last year and were opened for public comment on June 17, 2022. The final standards were published with changes considering feedback HUD received and additional testing in the field during the NSPIRE Demonstration. These changes include addressing life-threatening and severe deficiencies within 24 hours, making the Smoke Alarm Standard consistent with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard, and requiring carbon monoxide alarms to be installed in compliance with the 2018 International Fire Code.