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As the Federal Strategy for the Elimination of Childhood Lead Poisoning
emphasizes, making U.S. housing lead-safe is the key to eliminating lead
poisoning as a public health problem. The presence of “significant
lead hazards” in 25 million housing units calls for a broad set
of primary prevention tools and strategies that reach beyond raising awareness
and educating parents about day-to-day behavior changes. Many cities and
states are pursuing effective ways to prevent and control lead hazards
before a child is poisoned; programs and policymakers in other jurisdictions
need easy access to information about the multiple opportunities available
to advance prevention for lead safety and healthy homes.
Through Building Blocks for Primary Prevention: Protecting Children
from Lead-Based Paint Hazards, the Alliance has identified and assembled
a comprehensive collection of strategies that merit consideration by state
and local governments and others in position to reduce lead hazards in
housing and thereby help meet the Healthy People 2010 goal of eliminating
childhood lead poisoning. In contrast to case studies that comprehensively
analyze a single program, this project scanned the landscape to identify
and describe innovative and promising strategies at the “building
block” level. Building Blocks produced concise summaries
of individual strategies from which cities and states can select based
on their needs and political and economic realities. Building Blocks’
primary audience is state and local health departments, who will be able
to directly implement some strategies, and, for other strategies, to coordinate
or encourage needed action by other government agencies, community-based
organizations, and the private sector.
The
online edition of Building Blocks is currently available.
Three essential ingredients for making the U.S. housing stock lead-safe
are: 1) a work force trained and qualified to perform the spectrum of
activities to identify, control, and prevent lead hazards; 2) the financial
resources to cover the cost of lead safety measures; and 3) motivation
by property owners to address lead safety and control lead hazards. While
HUD and other federal agencies have worked diligently to build workforce
capacity and increase financial resources, increasing property owners’
interest and motivation has not received the same concerted attention.
In truth, it is difficult to imagine how the first two goals can ever
be achieved unless property owners are moved to take lead safety more
seriously. The Alliance worked with a powerful and diverse team of partners—two
state agencies, five local health departments, and ten community-based
organizations—to motivate disinterested landlords to increase private
sector investments in lead hazard control by way of stepped-up enforcement
of the federal disclosure law. The project developed and tested a number
of strategies to leverage the federal lead hazard disclosure law to convince
owners of high-risk properties to invest the additional resources that
are needed to prevent and control lead hazards. The project developed
four strategies to leverage the disclosure law: 1) Tenant Education; 2)
Outreach to Landlords; 3) Systems Change; and 4) Document/Report Disclosure
Violations. Through the implementation of these strategies, project partners
reached out to cooperative landlords and worked with them to improve compliance
with the disclosure law. They also offered resources for lead hazard control,
such as LSWP training, and identified and reported the worst offenders
to HUD and EPA for enforcement.
The Community Environmental Health Resource Center (CEHRC)
was a collaborative enterprise of the Alliance and local advocacy groups
from across the country working to protect children at highest risk from
environmental health hazards in their housing, schools, neighborhoods,
and communities. The goal of CEHRC was to help community-based organizations
build their capacity to empower residents, catalyze corrective action,
and expand economic opportunities by providing access to tools for identifying
and controlling environmental health hazards that cause lead poisoning,
asthma, and other health problems. CEHRC provided training, technical
assistance, and other support to local groups as well as mechanisms for
local groups to share experiences, develop strategy together, and learn
from and support each other.
Local advocates see environmental sampling as a powerful tool for their
organizations: for mobilizing their communities to action, changing power
relationships with landlords and local agencies, building capacity in
their communities, and helping to win specific advocacy outcomes. Community
leaders have identified a wide range of advocacy objectives that could
be advanced by documenting health hazards: from strengthening code enforcement
and enacting local laws and ordinances, to forcing landlords to correct
code violations and winning more block grant funds for housing rehab.
By the end of March 2005, with the support of HUD, CEHRC facilitated
the testing of 3,300 homes and played a major role in achieving significant
policy change objectives in several cities across the country.
The Alliance is working to catalyze a national conversation about health
and housing. In addition to the
latest research that increasingly documents the importance
of housing condition as a determinant of health, there is action and interest
in healthy homes at the local, state, and federal levels. Throughout the
country, community groups are working to prevent and correct housing-related
health hazards, numerous state legislatures and health departments are
grappling with mold and other health hazards, and there is growing interest
in Congress to pursue national legislation on healthy homes. There is
both the opportunity to build upon the change that is already beginning
and the necessity to avoid policymaking in a vacuum that could lock in
unworkable approaches. Capturing this momentum will expedite positive
change and prevent outcomes that are counterproductive.
The Alliance is reaching out to many different constituencies to hone
a policy agenda for healthy homes. Our objectives are both to draw on
the experiences and expertise of different stakeholders as well as build
broad support for policy solutions.
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