National Center for Healthy Housing

National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition (NSHHC) meetings are held quarterly, via conference call, and generally on the third Tuesday of the month from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Join the coalition today to receive additional details on these meetings and other NSHHC activities!

The next NSHHC Quarterly webinar will be held on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, from 1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT. Registration and additional detail on this event will be provided here closer to the event.

In our June 7, 2016, webinar, Healthy Housing for Older Adults: Housing as a Platform for Community Health Systems, a panel of experts spoke about two successful housing-based services models (HBSMs), one in Vermont and one in Oregon, and their importance in addressing the social determinants of health, promoting population health, and advancing healthcare systems change. Evaluations of these programs revealed Medicare and Medicaid savings.

Panelists and presentations:

• Nancy Rockett Eldridge, Executive Director, National Center for Healthy Housing, Columbia, MD; [pdf]
• Abigail M. Crocker, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, University of Vermont Department of Mathematics and Statistic; [pdf]
• Howard Klink, Project Director, Housing with Services LLC, Klink Consulting Group, Portland, Oregon; [pdf]
• Amanda Saul, Pacific Northwest Senior Program Director, Enterprise Community Partners, Portland, Oregon; [pdf]

NSHHC Working Group Updates:

• Policy Workgroup Update [pdf]
• Code Enforcement Workgroup Update [pdf]

You can access a recording of the webinar here.

In the wake of the Flint lead water crisis and increased national will to address the problem, NCHH and the National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition have launched a bold new drive to eliminate lead poisoning. The NSHHC also established a Find It, Fix It, Fund It action drive workgroup and held the first webinar for this workgroup on May 25, 2016. 

Presentations:

• An overview of the action drive [pdf]

• A presentation on the structure of the action drive and workgroups you can join [pdf]

• Actions you can take to promote the drive and eliminate lead poisoning [pdf]

You can access a recording of the webinar here.

Sign up to join the Find It, Fix It, Fund It Action Drive and/or add your organization’s logo to it.

Below are the panelists and presentations from our April 12, 2016, meeting, Flint: Lessons Learned, Lead Poisoning, Its Prevention, and Its Consequences:

• Representative Dan Kildee, D-MI-5
• Professor Marty Kaufman, Professor and Chair, Department of Earth and Resource Science, University of Michigan-Flint
• Paul Haan, Founding Executive Director, Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan
• Patrick Breysse, PhD, CIH, Director, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR) at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

NSHHC Working Group Updates:

• Policy Workgroup Congressional Update
• Code Enforcement Workgroup Update

You can access a recording of the webinar here.

Healthy Housing Hill Day was February 10, 2016, in Washington, DC 

Annually, NSHHC’s Hill Day works to raise the profile of healthy homes issues and recommend full funding for three crucially important federal programs - CDC's Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, HUD's Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, and CDC's National Asthma Control Program.

Having constituents on hand to share their personal experiences with home-based hazards, describe the work they conduct for healthy homes programs, or explain the ways that healthy homes programs have helped them in the state and/or district they represent, is what truly personalizes the issue for members of Congress. You are the people your member of Congress represents and cares deeply about; hearing from you is what really matters. 

Click here for a report from our February 10, 2016, Hill Day in Washington, DC!

Presentations:

• Boston’s 2012 Proactive Rental Housing Registry and Inspection Ordinance.  Presenters: Indy Alvarez and Will Onuoha, Inspectional Services Department, City of Boston
• California’s 2015 Mold Law.  Presenters: Larry Brooks, Alameda County Healthy Homes, California Association of Code Enforcement Officers (CACEO), and California Healthy Housing Coalition; Brandon Kitagawa, Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) and California Healthy Housing Coalition
• Washington State’s Law Expanding Weatherization to Include Healthy Housing.  Presenters: Representative June Robinson, Washington State Legislature; Michael Furze, Managing Director, Housing Improvements and Preservation Unit, Washington State Department of Commerce

You can access a recording of the webinar here.

Presentations

• The New Fair Housing Rule and Healthy Housing – Debby Goldberg, National Fair Housing Alliance; [pdf]
• "Fundreds” – New Media, Outreach, and Education Resources around Lead Poisoning – Amanda Wiles, Operation Paydirt; [pdf]
• The toolkit for inviting a member of Congress to your program, your event, or simply to a meeting – Chris Corcoran, Policy Working Group Co-Chair, and Julie Kruse, National Center for Healthy Housing

You can view a recording of the webinar here.  The audio starts immediately and the video starts in the second minute (2:25).

The National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition organized a Hill Day on March 17, 2015, as part of its campaign to restore funding for HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Health Homes and the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program and Lead Poisoning Prevention and Healthy Homes Program. Twenty advocates from seven key states participated in the Hill Day, conducting meetings with over 20 targeted House and Senate offices, including in-person meetings with seven members of Congress and meetings with leaders of the housing and health appropriations subcommittees.

Read about Hill Day 2015 here.



Senator Jack Reed (D, RI), center, listens to Laura Brion, a community organizer with the Childhood Lead Action Project, far left, while advocates Elizabeth Haverington Silvia and Omar Bah look on.



Left to right: NCHH's Acting Director Jonathan Wilson, Director of Policy Julie Kruse, Childhood Lead Action Project Community Organizer Laura Brion, Representative David Cicilline (D, RI-1), and Rhode Island-based advocates Elizabeth Haverington Silvia and Omar Bah.

The National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition hosted a reception and awards ceremony on May 29, 2014 in conjunction with the National Healthy Homes Conference in Nashville, TN. The Alameda County Healthy Homes Department, the Boston Inspectional Services Department, Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, and the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance each received a Healthy Homes Champion award in recognition of their invaluable efforts toward the improvement of housing health and safety conditions in their region.

Laura Brion from the Childhood Lead Action Project received the Dennis Livingston Memorial Award for Exceptional Organizing.

Learn more about the accomplishments of these individuals and their organizations.