December 13th, 2018
THE HEALTHY HOUSING INSPECTION MANUAL completes the foundation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Healthy Homes Initiative. The manual reflects the ongoing commitment of both CDC and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to work together to provide local jurisdictions with tools to address housing-related health hazards. Development of this manual was supported by the HUD and CDC Healthy Homes Initiatives.
The agencies’ initiatives related to healthy homes were created to develop a holistic approach to healthy housing based on the following broad objectives:
- Broaden the scope of single-issue public health and safety programs—such as childhood lead poisoning prevention, residential asthma intervention, injury prevention—to adopt a holistic approach addressing multiple housing deficiencies that affect health and safety.
- Build competency among environmental public health practitioners, public health nurses, housing specialists, housing owners, housing managers, and others who work in the community so they can incorporate healthy housing activities into their professional activities.
- Develop national healthy homes capacity through crossdisciplinary grants, contracts, and other activities at the federal, state, tribal, and community levels that research and demonstrate low-cost, effective home hazard assessment and intervention methods.
- Develop effective education and outreach materials, with a particular focus on
high-risk populations, to increase public awareness of residential hazards and highlight effective actions households can take to reduce the risk for illness and injury.