Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) today announced a total of $3,859,577 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the City of Newark and the Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. in Hackensack. The funding is part of the Healthy Homes Production Grant Program that aims to protect children and their families from housing-related health and safety hazards.
“A healthy home is a key to a healthy childhood and this funding will help New Jersey families maintain healthy and safe places to raise their children without the added worry of house hazards, childhood diseases, and injuries,” said Sen. Menendez. “No parent should have to fear having things like mold, lead, allergens, asthma, pesticides, carbon monoxide, threaten the well-being of their children while at home.”
“All children deserve a safe, healthy environment to call home,” said Sen. Booker. “This grant will allow Newark and Hackensack to take a coordinated, holistic approach to remediating health and safety hazards in homes and protecting children.”
The Healthy Homes Production (HHP) grant program focuses on housing-related hazards to address various childhood diseases and injuries in the home. This funding will allow these housing-related hazards to be addresses in a coordinated fashion, rather than addressing a single hazard at a given time. It focuses on researching and demonstrating low-cost, effective home hazard assessment and intervention methods, as well as educating the public about mitigation strategies communities can exercise in the face of housing-related hazards.
The $3.8 million in federal funding was awarded as follows:
- The City of Newark in Essex County will receive $2,000,000
- The Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. in Hackensack, Bergen County will receive $1,859,777.21
Sen. Menendez has fought long and hard to support New Jersey with the federal resources that would make homes safer for families and their children, including supporting the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) which is bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to New Jersey including $169 million for water infrastructure improvements that includes replacing lead pipes. Last January, the Senator announced $2.7 million in HUD Healthy Homes funding for organizations in Mercer and Morris counties.
In 2021, he introduced the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act, the Preventing Lead Poisoning Act, and with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (N.J.-11) called attention to the federal funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that Bloomfield, N.J. is using to replace lead water pipes throughout the township. In 2020, Sen. Menendez co-authored the Carbon Monoxide Alarms Leading Every Resident to Safety (CO ALERTS) Actwhich required the installation of CO detectors for families living in federally assisted housing to protect them from carbon monoxide poisoning.
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