Take Action
Members of the National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition (NSHHC) receive periodic “Action Alerts” notifying them of current opportunities to learn more about the intersection of health and housing (“Education Action”), secure funding for healthy homes-related activities (“Funding Action”), share information about their experiences working in the healthy homes field (“Information Action”), and advocate for healthy home environments “Advocacy Action”). Recent Action Alerts are listed below. View past Action Alerts here.
Sign the NSHHC’s Appropriations Letters: Tell Congress to Support Healthy Housing Programs
Advocacy Action. Posted June 10, 2021.
The National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition (NSHHC) is requesting signatures to support appropriation requests and advocate for healthy housing programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have further demonstrated the connection between housing quality and health outcomes, how these impacts disproportionately affect specific populations including communities of color and low-income communities, and the necessity of investing in addressing healthy housing hazards and poor housing quality. It is now more important than ever to advocate for federal programs that work to protect children and others from housing-related health hazards.
These letters will be circulated to the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and include funding asks of $175 million for CDC Center for Environmental Health programs, $606 million for HUD Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes programs, and $100 million for EPA programs.
Your signature will help to advocate for increased funding for these vital programs that protect children and others from housing-related health hazards and that support healthy housing.
You can view the letters and agency program breakdowns here:
CDC letter | EPA letter | HUD letter
These letters will be open for signatures through midnight (PT) Monday, June 14, 2021. You can sign either as an organization or an individual.
Summer 2021 Virtual Conference on Lead and Healthy Housing (July 12-16, 2021)
Education Action. Posted June 1, 2021.
This conference is an excellent opportunity to access over 30 presentations on lead poisoning prevention, lead hazard control, and healthy and safe housing issues. The virtual conference has been pre-approved for 28 hours of CEUs by the National Environmental Health Association. Access to the conference begins July 12 and will be available to registrants through September 30. Registration is now open for $78 a person.
PLUS – Conference registrants will receive free access to an archive of over 65 lead and healthy housing presentations.
If you have any questions about the virtual conference, email the Conference Director, Steve Weil, at weilcm2@verizon.net.
Register for the 2021 #NHHMchat on Twitter (June 23, 3:00 p.m. ET)
Education Action. Posted April 21, 2021.
The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) is hosting a Twitter chat for National Healthy Homes Month on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET (12:00 to 1:00 p.m. PT).
Register for the #NHHMchat here. | View the 2020 Wakelet #NHHMchat archive here.
Description: The 2021 #NHHMchat is an opportunity to exchange ideas, spread awareness, and inspire action on home hazard prevention and the implementation of effective healthy homes policies. The #NHHMchat aims to accomplish the following:
- Raise awareness of the importance of home assessments and their impact on health.
- Discuss available resources for local government, communities, property owners, and residents.
- Encourage strategic partnerships, regulatory action, and policies that promote healthy homes and lead poisoning prevention.
- Recap and collect all of the great healthy homes learning opportunities and resources shared throughout National Healthy Homes Month.
There are two ways to participate. The first is to RSVP here, which will get you early access to the Twitter chat questions. The second is simply to follow along on June 23 when @NCHH posts questions on Twitter, starting at 3:00 p.m. ET. Share your thoughts and ideas on policies, data, practices, and resources for healthy homes. Be sure to use #NHHMchat in your tweets and retweets, so the chat participants can easily follow you and others during this event.
So get ready to talk about aging in place, asthma, code compliance, COVID-19, energy efficiency, health equity, injury prevention, lead poisoning, pest control, tenants’ rights, tobacco control, and whatever other healthy homes topics you want to shout about on Twitter on Wednesday, June 23!
Grant Opportunity from Healthy Babies Bright Futures and the Mayors Innovation Project
Funding Action. Posted April 21, 2021.
Healthy Babies Bright Futures’ Bright Cities program is partnering with the Mayors Innovation Project—an innovative organization that supports mayors through annual meetings, specialized cohorts, and networks, technical assistance, publications, and more—on a grant program ($10,000 awards) open to U.S. city leaders.
COVID-19 dramatically altered the ways we live, work, and play, in part by laying bare the racism and inequality inherent in all of our communities. In response, many cities created rapid response pilots and programs to meet immediate and emerging needs. The 2020 Bright Cities and Mayors Innovation Project (MIP) grant program supported cities’ immediate needs to address COVID-19 with efforts to reduce neurotoxic exposures in pregnant women and babies.
This year, Bright Cities and MIP will provide $10,000 grants to five cities that implement strategies to scale projects that have demonstrated the potential to improve children’s health by reducing exposures to toxins that harm babies’ brain development and reduce health disparities.
Examples of eligible projects are those that:
- Reduce toxic exposures in public housing and spaces; e.g., toxic-free childcare training and nap mat exchanges; transition to chemical-free turf maintenance; and reducing lead exposures through education and/or remediation projects.
- Reduce toxic exposures in city purchasing; e.g., environmentally preferable purchasing policies that require products purchased are sustainable and free of neurotoxic chemicals.
- Reduce toxic exposures in food; e.g., using municipal land for organic produce cultivation, increasing availability of local/organic produce; working collaboratively with residents in low access food areas to develop solutions to the lack of healthy food access.
- Reduce toxic exposures in outdoor air; e.g., planting of trees and/or vegetative barriers near busy streets to reduce pollutants; transitioning park management strategies to chemical-free methods, and other green infrastructure projects.
In addition to a $10,000 financial award, the five grant recipients will receive technical assistance, an opportunity to present at a future Mayors Innovation Project meeting, and development and distribution of a case study and blog featuring your project.
Deadline to Apply: May 3, 2021.
Online Survey for Statewide Asthma Coalition Members
Information Action. Posted April 13, 2021.
Are you a current or former member of a statewide asthma coalition? If yes, your participation in this 10-minute online survey would be appreciated and help strengthen our understanding of how asthma coalitions sustain themselves over time, despite funding cuts. For completing the survey, you will receive a $10 Starbucks gift card, and can access the online survey here.
As background, my name is Gillian Mittelstaedt, and I am a public health and air quality professional, as well as a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I am also a former member and chair of a now-dissolved statewide asthma coalition (Washington State). In my dissertation research, I am exploring factors that influence the sustainability of statewide asthma coalitions.
Like many of you, many facets of my career have been shaped by the prevalence of asthma in the U.S., and the pronounced asthma disparities. As a parent of children with asthma, and an asthma advocate, I have directly observed the impact of asthma on personal lives. Your survey response will help strengthen coalition sustainability and provide practice-based insights for coalitions and their backbone organizations.
The survey is completely confidential, meaning that your identity cannot be connected to your survey answers when the data is analyzed, and it is strictly voluntary, so you can opt out at any time.
Thank you,
Gillian Mittelstaedt, MPA
DrPH Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health
Gmitte2@uic.edu
Pinned Actions
Get Your State Healthy Housing Profile
The National Center for Healthy Housing is proud to present brand new fact sheets for each of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and a sheet for the U.S. as a whole. Each sheet contains a list of healthy housing statistics tailored for the state, including lead poisoning screenings, asthma prevalence rates, radon levels, carbon monoxide deaths, and falls among older adults. Every fact is hyperlinked to a resource providing more information. The sheets also list federal programs currently funding work in each state.
The fact sheets are ideal tool for educating members of Congress and other elected officials about healthy housing issues in your state. Email sarah@nshhcoalition.org if you’d like more information about how we can help you conduct congressional outreach.
Meet Your Member of Congress
Meeting with policymakers is a vital way both to share stories and information and to represent the diversity of interests that make up the healthy housing community.
Use our guide to holding meetings and events with members of Congress, including materials needed to get your meeting request process started.
Good luck with your outreach efforts, and don’t forget to share any pictures on social media so that we can link to you.