About the Code Comparison Tool:
In 2012, the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) and the American Public Health Association (APHA) created the evidence-based National Healthy Housing Standard (NHHS) as a tool to connect the housing and public health sectors and as an evidence-based reference for those in the position of improving housing conditions. NCHH drew from the latest and best thinking in the fields of environmental public health, safety, building science, engineering, and indoor environmental quality. The basis for this document is Housing and Health: Recommended Minimum Housing Standards, which was published in 1986 by the American Public Health Association and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The NHHS bridges the health and building code communities by offering evidence-based public health information related to housing codes shown to support safe and healthy housing. It constitutes minimum performance standards for a safe and healthy home, provides health-based measures to fill gaps where no property maintenance policy exists, and complements the International Property Maintenance Code and other established housing policies used by local and state governments and federal agencies. Across its seven sections are 209 provisions, 157 of which are mandatory. In developing the NHHS, a variety of measures were identified that could further enhance the health and safety of the home but that would be difficult to achieve during property maintenance due to cost or feasibility. These provisions were included as “stretch” measures.
The seven sections of the NHHS are the foundation for developing the 12 sections of this online housing code comparison tool. This online application allows communities to conduct a self-review of their code (with limited technical assistance from NCHH) to ensure that our nation’s homes are the safe havens they are meant to be. Communities may complete one or more sections. Each of the 12 sections will produce a printable report with opportunity for action information in any area where the code standard has not been attained.