Healthy Homes Matter!

Join us! Greensboro community partners recognize that housing matters for health and that it will take systematic collaboration to reduce disparities and to make housing healthy. Since 2005 the Healthy Homes Greensboro collaborative has been dramatically reducing the number of substandard housing units by organizing stakeholders, getting the message out, expanding resources, and changing legal systems.  Review the work plan HHGInterventionModel and meet with the group on Tuesday, Sept 1, at 2:00 at the Cooperative Extension office at 3309 Burlington Rd.

The Healthy Homes Greensboro Initiative, led by GHC and the Guilford County Public Health department, is a collaboration of non-profits, businesses, and government organizations committed to reducing housing related illnesses and injuries. Below is an outline of who we are, our goals, and what we have accomplished so far.

Goal: Set in place the infrastructure for healthy homes by 2008–then reduce health disparities through systematic collaboration.

  • Collaboration-building with partners for healthy homes
    • City of Greensboro’s Lead Hazard Control program
    • City of Greensboro’s housing code enforcement program
    • Guilford County Health Department’s lead poisoning prevention program
    • FaithAction International House’s safe housing program
    • Weatherization program
    • Habitat for Humanity’s home repair program
    • Senior Resources of Guilford
    • Greensboro Neighborhood Congress
    • North Carolina A&T State University
    • Moses Cone Hospital System respiratory therapists
  • Housing assessments with resident education
    • Outreach about lead hazards, asthma triggers, rotten roofs and floors
    • Education about ways to clean, repair responsibilities, tenant rights
  • Landlord/contractor education
    • Information for landlords and contractors about disclosure requirements
    • Tips on effective ways to make housing safer
  • Public awareness campaign
    • Housing Summit, bus tour, presentations to groups
    • Quarterly newsletters, information through the media
  • Home repair referrals
    • Assistance with applications for homeowner repairs
  • Data collection/analysis/presentation
    • Quarterly updates in newsletter on current “scorecard” of unsafe houses (identified but not yet repaired)
  • Advocacy about code enforcement
    • Participation in committees with code enforcement inspectors

Accomplishments:

  • Helped make lead paint a major issue through public awareness campaign
  • Helped create Housing Greensboro, a homeowner repair program, in partnership with Habitat
  • Helped strengthen “repair or demolish” orders so that owners are repairing
  • Helped encourage responsible landlords to repair homes proactively
  • Won the innovation award from NC Housing Coalition and Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of North Carolina

Helpful information resources:

  • From the Wisconsin Healthy Homes Partnership. For educators and parents. Links with information about indoor air quality, asthma and allergies, child safety, and other topics.  Free, downloadable publications on a variety of healthy homes issues. Click here.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health. Wide range of topics, scholarly and layman’s language, publications. Site has an A to Z directory. Click here.
  • The EPA’s Children’s Health Protection site.  Comprehensive information about child development and environmental impacts. Covers issues nationally and internationally. Click here.
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) site on healthy homes. Covers hazards and emphasizes policies and issues related to public housing. Click here
  • Healthy Homes Partnership from the Cooperative Extension Service in Alabama. Simple information about healthy homes, health hazards, healthy homes work in other states. Click here.