Mar 10
2
Lead poisoning is serious stuff, particularly for children under the age of 6. And sadly, children this age are more likely to come in contact with dust contaminated by lead simply by doing the things little kids do. HUD recommends a pretty rigorous cleaning regimen for older homes to minimize the risks of lead poisoning.
Lead abatement — the process of getting rid of the lead altogether and properly disposing of it — is an expensive proposition. However, yesterday HUD announced that they will award $13,000,000 in grants for 25 local projects including lead abatement, research, public education, and related activities.
Lead paint has not been put in American homes since 1978, but there are still a lot of homes that have lead paint contamination. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that number at roughly 24,000,000 homes. Under federal law, the buyer of any home built before 1978 has to be warned of the possibility of lead contamination, if the seller knows about lead based pain he must disclose it (even institutional sellers like banks must sign this disclosure), and all buyers must receive this pamphlet on the dangers of lead based paint (PDF).
Bridget, I got emails from people saying these HUD grants were a waste of money, but if I watched my child die because of the paint in my house that I couldn’t afford to change, I would be devastated. This doesn’t effect the upper class, this is often a lower class issue and although I’m pretty conservative, there are SOME things that I think government funding should go towards- and this is one of them.
The grants also help with some green technologies and such but overall, I think HUD’s doing a good thing.
Oh, I agree! If this saves children’s lives — and keeps others from being seriously ill or mentally disabled — it will be a good thing. Better yet, this will rehabilitate “affordable” housing where the owners simply can’t afford to do the necessary lead remediation.
“Better yet, this will rehabilitate “affordable” housing where the owners simply can’t afford to do the necessary lead remediation.”
Maybe it’s an agent’s job to tell that buyer not to buy the home. I think the point I was trying to make to Lani, on AG, is that this isn’t HUD’s job to throw money at the problem.
Bridget, I’ll go one further because we both live in swimming pool, snake, and scorpion states. HUD doesn’t require education or disclosures for those hazards but all three are serious issues for families with young children. Do you consider it your job, when acting in a buyers’ agent capacity, to really explain those hazards or do you shove a disclosure form, buried with 20 other pages, in front of them?
HUD throwing money at the problem is a gigantic waste. A real estate agent, doing their job well, is invaluable.