Paul Pettit’s decided to get the lead out. Of his next grant opportunity, that is.
The director of Genesee Orleans Health Department reviewed a $1.5 million grant with the county’s Human Services Committee on Monday that will stray from his last one that focused strictly on lead-based products.
“So there's a HUD grant that came through about two weeks ago. This one's a little unique compared to our current HUD grant that we have, which is focused on lead. This one's a little broader,” Pettit said. “So it's any type of healthy homes issue, similar to the grant we have right now in the City of Batavia and the Town of Batavia, that helps us, you know, provide different assistance for healthy homes. This one's a little broader for the entire county. We'd be putting it as a global application.”
Funding would help income-eligible applicants within the county qualify for grants of $10,000 to $15,000 to work on health-related safety issues around their homes, such as mold, radon, lead, pests, and weatherization needs, he said.
“I’m not sure we'll get it or not. But we believe we have a very successful model with the HUD lead grant. That's actually doing a lot of good work in the GLOW region,” he said.
In January 2019, the Genesee County Health Department (GCHD) received a $1.3 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to address lead-based paint hazards in residential buildings within the counties of Genesee and Orleans.
Of this total funding, $1 million was to be used specifically for lead-based paint hazard reduction activities and $300,000 was directed to other health-related home repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. The funds were initially earmarked strictly for use in the City of Batavia and the Village of Albion, and HUD later approved an expansion of the program in December 2020.
That lead program has a coordinator and online details and applications for applicants and contractors involved in addressing the issues.
“So this would mirror that we already had systems in place. It obviously would probably involve hiring another environmental health specialist who would oversee that program for the region, with the funding to cover all that,” he said. “We’ll let you know: hopefully, we'll be accepting a grant soon.”
The committee approved the resolution, which will go on to Ways & Means and then to the county Legislature for final approval.
The resolution states that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a notice of funding opportunity titled Healthy Homes Production Grant Program, and WHEREAS, the grant will address housing-related diseases and injuries from housing health and safety hazards in underserved and low-income communities and will mitigate health and safety issues such as radon, pests, mold, lead, weatherization and other housing hazards, and WHEREAS, the Environmental Health Unit of the Health Department is desirous of submitting a complete application inclusive of required assurances, certifications and disclosures, and WHEREAS, the Human Services Committee did review this request and does recommend approval at this time.
