The County of Bergen will receive a $3.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Lead Hazard Control & Healthy Homes to remove lead hazards from the homes of eligible Bergen County residents, the county recently announced.
Since the most common source of lead exposure in the home is from lead-based paint, the homes that will be assessed under this grant are those constructed before 1978, roughly 75% of Bergen County’s total housing stock, with nearly 21,000 of those units pre-dating 1940.
The HUD grant is intended to assist low-income families who are either renting or own a home and lack the financial means to mitigate their families’ exposure to lead. Eligible families must be at or below 50% of the median income according to HUD guidelines, or approximately $53,000 for a family of 4, and must have a child under the age of six living in or spending significant amounts of time in the home. The County will work with contractors to remove lead paint hazards within the house itself on walls, windows and doors, ceilings, and floors, but does not include plumbing.
“Under this grant, the County will be able to perform assessments and remove lead paint and other lead hazards affecting hundreds of residents,” said County Executive James J. Tedesco III. “Working with our federal legislators, this is an important step in our overall efforts to eliminate the hazards posed by lead inside and outside the home.”
A portion of the grant is set aside to increase the health and safety of the home occupants such as replacing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. The County will also assist families in temporarily relocating for the duration of the paint removal.
In February 2018, the County similarly received approximately $375,000 in annual grant funding from the New Jersey Department of Health for the Childhood Lead Exposure Prevention (CLEP) program, which allows the County to perform assessments on homes and track lead exposure in children who have tested positive for blood lead levels in excess of 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood.
The CLEP grant allowed the county to purchase additional testing equipment to perform lead analysis on toys, cookware, makeup, and other consumer products to help determine the likely causes of childhood lead exposure. The HUD grant announced today will dovetail with the County’s existing CLEP program to further assist with lead hazard reduction in homes once a child has been identified through elevated blood lead level tests from pediatricians.
“From Flint, Michigan to Newark, we’ve seen the devastating effects lead can have on quality of life. Whether it be in the water in our pipes or the paint on our walls, all levels of our government are united in removing this health hazard from our communities quickly and permanently,” said U.S. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-9). “We fought hard for this federal award because it will help protect the health of our children, our families, and our neighbors. I thank our County Executive Jim Tedesco for his bold leadership on this issue and I will continue to bring home critical grants like this that protect the well-being of Bergen County residents.”
“Every family deserves to drink water that’s free of lead, and to know if their child’s school or their home has lead in their pipes. With this investment from HUD, we are continuing to claw back more of our federal tax dollars from Washington, boosting our return on investment, and helping minimize the impact on our local property taxes,” said U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “In Congress, I’m also working on new legislation to claw the resources back to New Jersey, from the Moocher States, needed to help schools in North Jersey identify and replace all lead pipes too.”
“Most of us take having a lead-free home for granted. We go about our daily lives secure in the knowledge that we will return every night to a place where our children and we are safe from hazardous environmental factors. Some Bergen County families are not so fortunate,” said Freeholder Vice-Chairwoman Mary Amoroso. “This $3.3 million grant is going to improve the safety and quality of life for a number of Bergen County families, and I’m excited to see this grant money start flowing into our communities.
“Children are far more vulnerable to lead poisoning than adults, and even low levels of lead exposure can hurt a child’s mental and physical development,”continued Bergen County Executive James J. Tedesco. “This vital federal funding will help us remove lead hazards in the home and not only make it safer for children, but for anyone else who occupies that home in the future.”