HUD has awarded the Bay State $2.4 million to eliminate lead and housing-related hazards in homes, part of a larger, $13 million nationwide effort.
The funding will also go toward training workers in lead and healthy homes interventions, supporting research to improve home safety efforts, increasing public awareness and evaluating outreach on controlling housing-based hazards.
The Boston Public Health Commission will receive $874,563. The money will be used for a project to improve the health and home environment of low-income children and families.
The project will enroll 80 children with asthma through a Chinatown neighborhood pilot and citywide efforts, and monitor health and environmental data for several households, according to a statement.
The Boston Public Health Commission will also receive $799,503 to implement a pest control study of activities in Boston Housing Authority housing that has resulted in differing levels of Integrated Pest Management intensity. Partners include the Boston Housing Authority, two public housing tenant groups, the Committee on Boston Public Housing and the West Broadway Task Force, the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston Medical Center, and Boston University School of Public Health.
The city of Somerville, in partnership with the Somerville Housing Authority, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership and Tufts University Schools of Medicine and Engineering, will be awarded $749,893 to conduct a pilot study of the potential health benefits of air cleaning technology in a public housing complex adjacent to a highway in Somerville.
