Every American deserves a healthy home. Achieving that goal requires changes in policies and programs to spur government agencies, businesses, landlords, and others to prevent and control hazards throughout the country’s housing. In addition, legal remedies sometimes are needed to complement enlightened policies and legislation to ensure compliance with the law.

Healthy housing belongs high on the national policy agenda because environmental health hazards in housing eclipse outdoor exposures and add billions to health care costs. Solutions at the local level are also vitally important due to the wide variations in the risk and prevalence of housing-related health hazards. Much of the hard work of developing effective policies takes place at the state, municipal, and community levels, often creating successful models that can be adopted in other jurisdictions, or nationally.

The Alliance advocates for policy changes that work in practice to protect children at risk. Many of our policy recommendations on healthy homes have emerged from our experiences helping to shape effective approaches to address lead poisoning hazards. We are also engaged in on-going discussions with a wide range of agencies, individuals, and organizations to share and refine our ideas and to learn what others recommend. We welcome your suggestions—both your comments on our recommendations and your ideas for additional policy solutions.