Healthy Homes Greensboro
The Greensboro community is taking seriously the community assessment “Focusing on What Matters” in the area of quality housing opportunities. With a planning grant from the Weaver Foundation, public and community partners have set the goal of reducing unsafe housing by at least 50% by December 2008 and created action teams to implement each step. Mayor Keith Holliday unveiled the name and logo of the new collaborative initiative on April 10, 2006. As the mayor noted, investing in healthy homes results in a healthy community:
HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES — saving health care costs
SAFER NEIGHBORHOODS — saving public safety costs
MORE STABLE STUDENTS — saving education costs
FEWER ABANDONED BUILDINGS — attracting economic development investments
The collaboration adopted four actions for the three year campaign:
- Get the message out-about healthy housing resources, about rights and responsibilities, about lead, mold, pests, and other hazards.
- Pull together resources-for repairs, for education, for legal representation.
- Organize stakeholders-so that everyone has a voice at the table.
- Change legal processes-after identifying specific ways to strengthen enforcement.
To reduce unsafe housing in Greensboro, we need to increase resources and decrease problems:
- DECREASING LEAD POISONINGS — screening all young children & investigating sources of lead exposure before blood lead levels reach the poisoning stage [visit web site]
- INCREASING LEAD-SAFE HOMES — grants to make owner-occupied and rental homes lead-safe [visit web site]
- DECREASING RISKS FOR SENIORS — referral information for seniors needing home repairs [visit web site]
- INCREASING HOME REPAIR VOLUNTEERS — volunteers make homes “warmer-safer-drier” for homeowners; call Habitat 275-4663
- DECREASING ENERGY COSTS (and carbon monoxide) — grants to address heating problems and give households more money for other health needs [visit web site]
- INCREASING HEALTHYBUILT HOMES — “green-building” science for materials & techniques [visit web site]
- DECREASING ABANDONED BUILDINGS — focusing attention on dilapidated and dangerous buildings by providing public access to enforcement data [visit web site (Click on “continue,” then “active cases,” and put in address)]
- INCREASING STRONGER NEIGHBORHOODS — empowering neighborhoods to resolve neighborhood-specific concerns [visit web site]
- DECREASING NUMBER OF HOMES WITH CODE VIOLATIONS — speeding compliance with repair orders through enforcing penalties in court [visit web site]
- INCREASING REPAIR RESOURCE OPTIONS — repair loans and grants for homeowners and landlords; [visit web sites here and here]
- DECREASING DISPARITIES & DISCRIMINATION — education and enforcement about fair housing [visit web site]
- INCREASING HEALTHY HOMES FOR EVERYONE! — advocacy for decent affordable housing [visit web site]