HUD, HHS and Virginia Announce $4.4M Healthy Homes Funding and Technical Assistance for Petersburg

HUD’s Healthy Homes program is run by the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes (OLHCHH). It focuses on making housing safer by identifying and fixing health and safety hazards in homes—especially for children and other vulnerable residents. This includes problems like lead-based paint, mold and moisture, asthma triggers (such as pests and dust), carbon monoxide, radon, and fall or injury risks.

“Competitive funding” means the $4.4 million is not pre‑assigned to specific cities. Instead, HUD publishes a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), and eligible applicants submit proposals. HUD then scores these applications against clear criteria (such as local need, plan quality, capacity, and matching funds) and awards grants to the highest‑scoring proposals until the $4.4 million is used.

The $4.4 million announced in the article is a national pool for HUD’s Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building grants, not money set aside only for Petersburg. HUD will split this total into multiple competitive grants (HUD has not specified exact award sizes in the press release), each supporting a jurisdiction to build its local capacity to find and reduce lead-based paint hazards in older rental and owner‑occupied homes.

According to HUD’s program description and the capacity‑building NOFO, eligible applicants are:

• State and local governments (“state and local jurisdictions”) for the Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building grants.
• In related lead‑hazard reduction grants, federally recognized tribes and some public entities can also be eligible, but the specific NOFO controls.

Communities (like Petersburg) typically receive funds through their city or county government or a state agency that applies on their behalf. The Virginia Governor’s office notes that HUD will provide technical assistance to Petersburg specifically so the city can compete more effectively for this and future lead‑hazard and Healthy Homes funding.

In this initiative, HUD’s “technical assistance” (TA) means hands‑on help from HUD staff and contractors so Petersburg and its partners can plan, apply for, and carry out Healthy Homes and lead‑hazard work effectively.

Based on HUD and Virginia descriptions, this includes:

• Helping city officials and local partners understand the requirements and best practices for Lead Hazard Reduction and Healthy Homes grants.
• Assisting Petersburg in preparing strong, compliant applications for the $4.4 million national capacity‑building funds and other HUD grants.
• Supporting implementation of an existing $2.8 million HUD lead‑hazard removal program in Petersburg (e.g., setting up local processes, contractor/workforce development, and compliance with HUD rules).

HUD emphasizes that OLHCHH programs “help communities help themselves” by providing advice and support so local governments can build lasting capacity to make homes healthier.

Opportunity Zones are census tracts (neighborhood‑sized areas) that a governor designates as “economically distressed” under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Investors who put money into businesses or real estate in these zones through qualified Opportunity Funds can get significant federal tax benefits (such as deferring or reducing capital‑gains taxes). The idea is to steer private capital into underserved communities.

HUD’s Petersburg release notes that the Make Petersburg Healthy Again initiative is working “at the neighborhood level, including in Petersburg’s three Opportunity Zones.” That means some of the health‑ and housing‑related work—like improving homes, clinics, food access, and possibly housing rehabilitation—will be targeted to those designated low‑income tracts to leverage both federal support and private investment.

Lead-based paint hazards mainly harm young children and pregnant people, but adults are also affected.

Health problems from lead exposure include:

• In children: permanent damage to the brain and nervous system, lower IQ, learning and behavior problems, slowed growth, hearing problems, headaches, and at very high levels, seizures or death.
• In adults: high blood pressure, heart and kidney problems, reproductive issues, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, and joint or muscle pain.

Most hazards in older housing come from deteriorating lead-based paint and contaminated dust, especially on windows, doors, floors, and porches.

HUD’s lead and Healthy Homes grants typically fund interventions such as:

• Inspecting and risk‑assessing homes for lead hazards.
• Stabilizing or safely removing deteriorating lead‑based paint (using certified lead‑safe work practices).
• Replacing friction surfaces like old windows and doors to reduce dust.
• Specialized cleaning to remove lead‑contaminated dust.
• Minor repairs that reduce moisture and other conditions that worsen hazards, often bundled with broader “healthy homes” fixes.

These actions aim to make homes “lead‑safe,” especially for families with young children.

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission is a presidential advisory commission created by Executive Order on February 13, 2025. It is chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and includes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and other major health, research, and economic agencies.

Its initial mission is to study and address the United States’ “childhood chronic disease crisis” (conditions like asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, autism, and mental‑health disorders). Within 100 days it must deliver an assessment of the problem and its causes; within 180 days it must propose a federal strategy to reduce and eventually end childhood chronic disease.

For projects like Make Petersburg Healthy Again, the Commission’s role is high‑level coordination and policy direction: it sets national priorities (for example, focusing on asthma and environmental health in children) and aligns federal agencies such as HHS and HUD to support local pilots. Petersburg is described in news coverage as a prototype site within a broader “Make America Healthy Again” effort, with federal, state, and local partners working together on pediatric asthma, access to care, nutrition, and healthy homes.