The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $450,000 in grants to the Boston Medical Center to help children and families living in Boston reduce health and safety hazards in their homes.

The grants will support efforts to control asthma and allergy triggers such as mold and moisture, mitigate safety hazards in homes and improve energy efficiency. Grants will also support research to advance methods for hazard reduction, according to a statement.

The grant funding is part of $18 million HUD is awarding nationwide to clean up health hazards in thousands of homes, train workers, and increase public awareness about reducing and preventing health hazards in their homes.

"HUD is committed to providing healthy and safe homes as part of our mission to help make the nation’s housing more healthy and sustainable," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "These grants will help communities to protect families and children from significant health and safety hazards."

The Boston Medical Center will utilize other grant funds to investigate using community health workers employed by the Boston Housing Authority and trained by the Boston Public Health Commission to do a development-wide environmental intervention to improve asthma control and the general health and well-being of all participants.