Providence receives $3.9M federal grant for lead safety

PROVIDENCE MAYOR Angel Taveras heralded a $3.9 million federal grant that the city's Department of Planning and Development received to protect city residents from the hazards of lead-based paint in their homes.   / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
PROVIDENCE MAYOR Angel Taveras heralded a $3.9 million federal grant that the city's Department of Planning and Development received to protect city residents from the hazards of lead-based paint in their homes. / PBN FILE PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

Update Wednesday 3:45 p.m.: The Providence Plan and its partners, the Rhode Island Department of Health and Brown University, also were awarded $315,500 in lead technical studies program funding from HUD to study the effect that the state’s 2005 lead hazard mitigation law has had on the incidence of lead poisoning among children by promoting stronger enforcement. They will assess the effectiveness of lead hazard control activities, to what extent the law has reduced childhood lead poisoning in the state and provide data about the economic consequences associated with childhood lead poisoning.

PROVIDENCE – The city’s Department of Planning and Development received $3.9 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to protect city residents from the hazards of lead-based paint in their homes.
The funding, announced in a press release Tuesday by U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Reps. David N. Cicilline and James R. Langevin, will be used as part of the department’s “Lead Safe Providence Program,” which coordinates city services to mitigate lead hazards in low-income neighborhoods.
The funding will support building or renovation of 250 safe, healthy and sustainable housing units in Providence.
“Lead poisoning is a preventable tragedy that dramatically impacts a child’s ability to learn and has a significant cost for schools and our society. Without this federal funding, fewer parents would be able to protect their children from lead hazards that may be present in their homes. Too many children and families right here in Rhode Island remain at risk,” said Reed, who was awarded the 2014 National Child Health Champion Award by the National Center for Healthy Housing and the Rhode Island Childhood Lead Action Project.
Earlier this year, Reed, an Appropriations Committee member, restored $15 million in federal funding for the Centers for Disease Control’s Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
Said Whitehouse, “Rhode Islanders continue to deal with the toxic legacy of lead paint. In 2013, over 1,000 Rhode Island children under the age of 6, including more than 400 in Providence, were diagnosed with lead poisoning.”
Mayor Angel Taveras said that with the support of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s lead abatement program, the city has addressed household lead paint hazards in 1,500 units over the past 15 years.
“These additional funds allow us to continue the work to improve the well-being, educational potential and life prospects of all residents,” Taveras said.
The funding is from two grants from HUD programs; Providence received $3.5 million from HUD’s Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration program and $400,000 from HUD’s Healthy Homes program, which helps cities coordinate responses to housing-related hazards.

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