Allentown will remove lead paint hazards in 310 homes using $5.7M HUD grant

Allentown will removehazardousleadpaintin310lower-income homes over the next three years, thanks to a $5.7 million federal grant awarded Friday.

Allentown was the only eastern Pennsylvania municipality that received money through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Lead Hazard Reduction grant program and Health Homes program. The city was also one of the six overall largest recipients in the nation.

Allentown hopes the funding will help reduce the incidence of childhoodlead poisoning. Priority will be given to properties where a child has been confirmed to have high blood lead levels. The city figures small children with high blood lead levels live in about a quarter of the homes that will benefit from the program.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29% of Lehigh County children under 6 who were tested in 2017 hadelevated blood lead levels, the highest rate among Pennsylvania’ s counties.

The CDC estimates 24 million housing units nationwide have deteriorated leaded paint and elevated levels of lead-contaminated house dust, and more than 4 million are homes to children. Pennsylvania ranks third in the nation for having the most housing units built before 1950, andfourth in the nation for having housing units built before 1978.

The city Department of Community and Economic Development will run the program, with assistance from the Allentown Health Bureau, which will perform lead-based paint inspections and risk assessments on properties occupied by children with elevated blood lead levels.

To help pay for the work, the city will also tap $500,000 of its Community Development Block Grant funding, which also comes from HUD.

At least half of the selected rental units will be occupied (or available to) families withincomes at or below the 50% of the area median income. The remaining apartments will be occupied by families with incomes at or below 80% of the area median income.

For owner-occupied houses, families must make80% or below of the area median income to qualify for the program. The city will select 103 homes to address annually over the next three years.

The city first implemented a lead paint removal program in 2016 after receiving a $1.4 million grant from HUD. It removed lead from 53 properties over three years.

Mayor Ray O’Connell said in a news release that the city has a full project staff, relationships with qualified contractors and a well-developed program referral and intake system.