It is estimated that there are more than 130,000 homes within the city of Atlanta that were built prior to 1978. Of those, there are 6,500 pre-1940 rental units.
“And those are most at risk for poisoning children,” said Joseph Phillips, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It is not clear how many, but those homes would be likely candidates to contain lead-based paint.
Today, with that in mind, Atlanta and Savannah will each receive a $2.1 million grant from HUD to develop lead abatement programs and support the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), a partnership between area foundations, government agencies and nonprofits to share resources and more efficiently rehabilitate homes.
The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative will renovate older homes in Atlanta to remove lead and other hazards while making them energy efficient. The grants will also fund green job training for the workers renovating the homes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 250,000 American children between the ages of 1 and 5-years-old with high levels of lead in their blood.
Lead poisoning can affect nearly every system in the body and usually goes unnoticed .
In 2007, out of 65,904 children tested, 172 showed some level of blood poisoning. That figure has continued to go down over the last decade.
In winning the grant, Atlanta’s department of planning and the office of housing will form a program called Lead Safe Atlanta to create 150 lead safe units.
As part of a $5 million grant, the Center for Working Families will get $800,000 to create a green jobs program.
“This allows us to not only find jobs, but to create jobs for the community,” said Jomal Vailes, director of development and communications at the Center for Working Families. “For us, this is a great opportunity to provide green jobs.”
Vailes said his organization’s share of the grant would go toward “healthy home rehab,” and create jobs in areas like lead abatement and weatherization.
HUD will host a news conference at 3 p.m. Thursday to announce the grant. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and HUD’s Southeast Regional Administrator Edward L. Jennings are expected to be on hand for the presentation.
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