The HUD Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Top Management Challenges Facing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 2023 again prioritizes eliminating lead-based and radon hazards from HUD-assisted housing, as well as addressing ongoing concerns regarding inferior conditions at some HUD-assisted properties. The document states that “HUD OIG has identified lead as a priority, coordinating efforts in all of its oversight components to ensure that lead regulations are followed and HUD beneficiaries are protected from lead.” The emphasis on lead-based hazards is part of an “Environmental Justice Initiative” announced by OIG in a media release on March 9. These health and safety concerns were also included in OIG’s 2022 Top Management Challenges.
According to the media release, to advance environmental justice in HUD housing OIG is prioritizing the oversight objectives of:
- Ensuring public housing agencies (PHAs), landlords, contractors, and inspectors properly identify lead hazards and use safe work practices to reduce and prevent lead exposure and poisoning in HUD housing.
- Ensuring landlords fulfill their obligations to provide housing units that are decent, safe, and sanitary, and to make necessary repairs to units in a timely and safe manner.
OIG writes, “To its credit, HUD has recognized these challenges and highlighted them in its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, charging its Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes with
the priority goal: ‘By September 30, 2023, protect families from lead-based paint and other health hazards by making an additional 20,000 units of at-risk housing units healthy
and lead-safe.’” OIG continues, “Further, HUD has set forth multiple planned strategies in
this area, to include:
- Align and enforce HUD-assisted housing inspections and mitigation measures to consistently address lead-based paint hazards across HUD-assisted housing programs.
- Continue to prioritize comprehensive reductions in Americans’ exposure to lead in their homes by addressing lead contamination in soil, water, and paint.”
Read Top Management Challenges Facing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 2023 at: https://bit.ly/3mMJgAz
Read OIG’s “Environmental Justice Initiative” media release at: https://bit.ly/3yARD4K
Read more about Lead Hazard Control and Heathy Homes on page 6-1 of NLIHC’s 2023 Advocates’ Guide.
HUD’s Office of the Inspector General website is at: https://www.hudoig.gov
HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes website is at: https://bit.ly/2Kk1uox