HUD Ltr Safe & Healthy Communit
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
WASHINGTON. DC 20410-3000
OFFICE OF HEALTHY HOMES AND
LEAD HAZARD CONIROL
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The Honorable Terrance M. Duggan
Mayor of Dubuque
50 West 13th
City Clerks Office
Dubuque, IA 52001
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Dear Mayor Duggan:
The Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control (OHHLHC), is requesting
your assistance and partnership with us to establish your city as a Safe and Healthy
Homes Community. Successfully achieving the federal goal of eliminating childhood
lead poisoning by the year 2010 is one of HUD's top priorities. We request that you
designate, and provide me the name of, a senior contact person with whom we may
communicate and coordinate our collective efforts, including those of the housing, health,
community development and code enforcement agencies, for your city.
A Safe and Healthy Homes Community is a city or county that has demonstrated
its commitment to addressing health and safety issues through housing interventions.
The community, with the support offederal agencies, has established an infrastructure to
identify and address housing-related health and safety issues locally. It facilitates
effective working relationships among health departments, housing and community
development organizations, code enforcement agencies, and major private-sector
stakeholders, to evaluate and control housing-related hazards that pose threats to all
residents, particularly children.
Recognizing the importance of eliminating child hood lead poisoning, we focus on
the infrastructure established by a Safe and Healthy Homes Community being a critical
element for eliminating lead-based paint hazards in older housing, whether federally
assisted or not. The Community mobilizes the available resources to foster local
partnerships in the public and private sectors in order to ensure that lead hazards in
properties responsible for elevated blood lead levels are controlled, The infrastructure
and working relationships developed in this Community not only help ensure the
elimination oflead poisoning, but also serve as the framework for addressing additional
housing-related illnesses, including asthma and unintentional injuries, that threaten the
safety and health of children.
2
With just 5 years remaining until 2010, it is more important than ever to ensure
that we are leveraging all available resources, be they federal, state, or local resources. In
establishing a Safe and Healthy Homes Community, you will be partnering with us to
build the infrastructure necessary to eliminate lead-based paint hazards and to mobilize
national resources expeditiously, through a partnership among all levels of government
and the private sector, to develop the most promising, cost-effective methods for
evaluating and reducing lead-based paint hazards - key objectives of Title X ofthe 1992
Housing and Community Development Act.
The most recent data from your city for the past several years reported to us by
your staff show 118 elevated blood lead levels (EBLs) reported over the past few years
using your state's criteria. We are asking you to take the initiative to ensure coordination
of your city's resources to substantially reduce these numbers. The Office of Healthy
Homes and Lead Hazard Control has awarded your community a total of$2,417,399 for
currently active grants to assist you in your efforts. More specifically your city, or
organizations located in your city, received a grant in the following amount:
City of Dubuque, Iowa, Lead Hazard Control grant $2,417,399.00
We request your support for the Safe and Healthy Homes Community initiative
regarding OHHLHC grants, whichever their type and whether they are under your
managerial authority. We ask you to encourage the grantees, especially in those agencies
under your authority, to partner with you and us in using their knowledge of housing
health and safety for the initiative, whether their work is for lead hazard control, outreach
or research, and whether they work on lead or other housing health and safety issues.
HUD is participating in coordinated federal efforts across agencies on lead safety
and other housing-related health and safety issues. For lead, HUD's Lead Safe Housing
Rule (24 CFR 35, subparts B-R) modernizes all lead-based paint requirements in
federally assisted housing to ensure that children are adequately protected from lead
poisoning. HUD officials and offices are developing and using standard protocols for
monitoring compliance with the rule. HUD's field staff is currently using these tools to
oversee and monitor parties to whom HUD provides federal assistance - such as our
grantees, participating jurisdictions, and entitlement program administrators - to be sure
they live up to the Rule's requirements.
3
OHHLHC is working, and will continue to work with our federal partners to assist
cities in developing strategies for mitigating lead and other housing related health
hazards. This fiscal year, staff from the Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, and OHHLHC staff will visit 25 cities to assist these
cities in developing concrete plans for coordinating health department, code enforcement,
and housing and community development resources to address lead hazards in properties
identified with reported elevated blood lead levels. OHHLHC considers your success
critical to our success. Only with your commitment and involvement will we be
successful in coordinating local resources and reaching out to building owners, financial
institutions, and others in the private sector, to achieve the goal of implementing the Lead
Safe Housing Rule and making your city a Safe and Healthy Homes Community.
I am sure you want to eliminate childhood lead poisoning as much as we in the
federal government do. Together I am confident we will succeed. Please feel free to call
me at (202) 708-0310 if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to hearing
from you very soon.
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Joseph F. Smith
Deputy Director
THE CITY OF
H&CD
Housing and Community Development Department
1S05 Central Avenue
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-3656
(563) 589-4239 office
(563) 589-4244 lax
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17 November 04
Joseph Smith
Deputy Director
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control
US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Washington DC 20410-3000
Re: Safe and Healthy Homes Community
Mr Smith:
Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the Safe and Healthy
Homes Community program. We are very interested in this initiative and
appreciate your offer of participation.
We have to-date made more than 500 units lead-safe, through funding offered by
your office, since 1997. We consider our efforts to reduce lead hazards in older
housing to be a cornerstone of our housing and community development efforts.
We're proud of our accomplishments, while realizing we have a lot of work yet to
do.
One reason I am particularly interested in your proposal concerns our current
planning for an intensive neighborhood reinvestment strategy in one of our oldest
downtown areas. We have proposed a targeted effort, including intensified code
enforcement through several departments, concentrated public improvements,
customized lending products to encourage reinvestment and additional owner
occupancies, and new partnerships with neighborhood groups and private sector
stakeholders. It sounds made-to-order for the initiative you're proposing.
I would like to volunteer our city as one of the 25 your team would visit and assist
in developing our revitalization strategy. I hope we will be hearing from your
office soon and that we can make plans to work together. Thanks again for your
leadership.
Best wishes
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~Vid Harris
Department Director
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