What NCHH Does 

Our mission is to ensure that everyone has a safe and healthy home. With more than six million families living in substandard housing, we equip leaders across the public health, housing, and environmental sectors with the data, tools, policies, and best practices needed to improve housing quality in their communities. We channel the powerful energy and deep-rooted interests of the healthy housing movement into a force for change. Learn how you can be a part of this change.

 

New Tool Available to Support Transparent and Equitable Lead Service Line Replacement

The replacement of lead service lines (LSLs) is an increasingly important public health and environmental justice goal for government leaders at all levels, from the Biden-Harris Administration down to individual cities and towns. Historically, efforts to replace lead service lines have sometimes exacerbated the inequities of lead exposure by serving wealthier and whiter areas first and faster than low-income and majority-Black neighborhoods. However, replacement programs that get it right and prioritize and center equity can serve as a model not only for addressing lead in water but also for addressing other environmental hazards (including lead paint) and environmental justice. (For more information and examples of cities leading the way on this, see our June 2023 blog, “Lead Service Lines: Connecting to Environmental Justice.“)

Last month, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) launched a national map of lead service line replacement programs designed to highlight communities where active programs are in place and surface areas across the country where inaction remains. The map contains profiles on over 200 individual lead service line replacement programs that publicly share information about their efforts. Each profile includes available information on lead service line replacement programs, including links to utility webpages, online interactive lead service line maps, efforts to prioritize vulnerable populations, and financial support for private-side replacement. The map also contains optional layers that show additional data, such as the “Top 10 Cities” in the country with the most lead service lines, EPA estimates for the number of lead service lines per state, and states that have mandated lead service line replacement. [read more]….

The American Rescue Plan: Over $1.7 Billion Budgeted So Far on Healthy Homes Work

In August 2021, we wrote about the opportunity present in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for communities to use the flexible funding source to improve housing quality; in April 2022, we published a series of blogs about states, cities, and counties that were doing just that: spending the funds on efforts to remove lead hazards, improve water quality, and repair homes.

Now, we’re following up with a survey of the publicly released data from the Treasury Department on how communities are using these funds. There’s a lot of information below, but the bottom line is that so far, we’ve counted 368 projects¹ by states, cities, and counties that have cumulatively budgeted over $1.7 billion towards healthy homes. And to be honest, that might be an undercount [read more]….