U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced the inclusion of $360 million for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, including $60 million for the Healthy Homes Program and $95 million for lead-based paint reductions, in the recently passed FY 2021 government spending package. This funding provides competitive grants to cities and municipalities to reduce lead paint-based health hazards and correct serious threats to residents’ health and safety caused by lead exposure. These funds are prioritized for low-income households with young children.
Gillibrand also announced $25 million for lead reduction for federally-assisted housing through the Public Housing Fund. The funding will help protect children and families living in federally subsidized housing from easily preventable health hazards by identifying and treating individual units with lead hazards, improving oversight and remediation, and upgrading substandard housing with healthy homes interventions.
“Too many of our children have been exposed to lead paint, which studies show can have long-term, devastating health and development outcomes,” said Senator Gillibrand. “As we fight against this second COVID-19 wave, no one should be put in a situation where following public health guidance and staying home means risking exposure to lead paint poisoning. I won’t stop fighting until lead paint is a relic of the past and no longer a threat to New Yorkers.”
Gillibrand wrote to appropriators urging support for $376 million for HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, including $100 million for the Healthy Homes Program and $6 million for the Lead Technical Studies Program.
Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, along with Rep. Brian Higgins previously announced $15.5 million in federal funding for lead hazard reduction in nearly 900 households across New York State.
Read the text of the letter here.