Healthy Housing Policy Agenda: The Alliance for Healthy Homes and the National Center for Healthy Housing call on leadership from all levels of government and the private sector to create healthful housing for families in America through practical policy approaches.

Research, Hazard Intervention and National Outreach for Healthier Housing Act (RHINO-HH)

RHINO-HH, or Senate bill S. 3654, introduced by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) in September 2008, emphasizes cost-effective approaches and market-based incentives to make homes healthier and safer without detracting from their affordability. The multi-faceted legislation aims to improve research, enhance the capacity of federal programs, and expand national outreach efforts.

Bill provisions include:

• Provides funding for existing federal housing programs, such as CDBG, HOME, and LIHEAP to add healthy homes components to their programs.
• Leverages the private market interest in healthy homes by creating a voluntary “Healthy Homes Seal of Approval” modeled after the successful Energy Star program.
• Authorizes $7,000,000 for each of the next five years for the National Institute of Environmental Health Science and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate the health risks and human health effects of indoor exposure to chemical pollutants including carbon monoxide, chemical asthma triggers, and common household and garden pesticides.
• Authorizes $6,000,000 for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to study methods for the assessment and control of housing-related health hazards.
• Provides $10,000,000 for HUD and CDC to study the indoor environmental quality of existing housing and to create a system for monitoring housing related hazards.

For a summary of the bill, please visit this page on the National Center for Healthy Housing website.

Weatherization Plus Health

Weatherization activities offer a unique opportunity to address housing-based environmental health threats. Weatherization crews treat over 100,000 housing units each year and work with low-income families. Although their primary mission is to improve energy efficiency, they have the skills to do more.

Weatherization Plus Health is an ongoing initiative to provide weatherization programs with the tools they need to address asthma triggers (e.g., moisture/mold, pests, allergens), lead hazards, and carbon monoxide when they are in a home. The program overview describes this initiative. Specific protocols provide assessment tools to address moisture/mold, pests, ventilation, carbon monoxide, lead, and other hazards. Weatherization Plus Health was developed by a collaborative effort among weatherization, health, and environmental experts.

According to the website of the U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (W.A.P.), "Weatherization Plus is the strategic approach of the Department of Energy Weatherization Program’s national network. The 2005 - 2010 strategic plan had three priorities: updating the network agencies’ technology and capability, increasing the exchange of information and skills on all practices of the programs, and expanding Weatherization’s leveraged resources." W.A.P.'s continued expansion is thanks in part to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The ARRA provided an additional $5 billion through 2010 to hire and train more weatherization workers to improve energy efficiency in hundreds of thousands of homes.