project:HOMES receives $1.4M federal grant

Elderhomes Corp., known publicly as project:HOMES, has received a grant of about $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help address home health hazards facing children and families.

The organization serves Metro Richmond, including Henrico County, and provides a variety of home rehabilitation services to low-income homeowners. To date, it has completed more than 32,200 projects on 18,717 homes.

In total, HUD awarded nearly $104.7 million to 60 nonprofit organizations and state and local government agencies in 29 states through its Healthy Homes Production Grant Program. project:HOMES was one of three recipients in Virginia.

The grant program is designed to help grantees identify health and safety hazards in low-income families’ homes. The grants will protect children and families with incomes at or below 80% of the area median income level by targeting significant lead and health hazards in more than 7,400 low-income homes for which other resources are not available.

“By providing these grants, HUD makes it clear that ensuring healthy and safe homes for communities across our nation is a priority,” said Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “HUD is working every day to keep families safe from home health hazards like lead paint because for many Americans, their home is a primary determinate of their health, and that is why HUD is committed to protecting families from these hazards and to providing healthy and sustainable housing for all Americans."

The Healthy Homes Production Grant Program exists to address multiple childhood diseases and injuries in the home by focusing on housing-related hazards in a coordinated fashion, rather than addressing a single hazard at a time, according to HUD officials. The program is designed to build upon HUD’s Lead Hazard Control programs to expand the department’s efforts to holistically address a variety of high-priority housing-based health and safety hazards, such as mold and moisture, poor indoor air quality, pests, carbon monoxide, injury, and safety hazards, in addition to lead-based paint.

In the coming weeks, grantees will begin setting up and implementing their programs and will make applications available for families who are interested and eligible for their local Healthy Homes Program.