National Healthy Homes Month Promotes Healthy Housing for All

Keeping a healthy home means keeping a home free of thirdhand smoke. You can learn more about how to maintain a healthy home from the US Department of Housing & Urban Development.

June 1, 2020

By: US Department of Housing and Urban Development

In the U.S. today, people spend close to 90% of their time indoors. National Healthy Homes Month (NHHM), created by HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes (OLHCHH), is an outreach campaign designed to help people connect the dots between their health and their home. This year’s overarching theme “Heathy Housing for All”, recognizes that a healthy home is important to homeowners, renters, older persons, children, and others regardless of race, income, education, or social status. National Healthy Homes Month focuses on the importance of home assessments, and the impact awareness can have on your health; and to empower people to make change in order to create the healthiest home possible for themselves and their family.
Currently, millions of U.S. homes have moderate to severe physical housing problems, including dilapidated structure; roofing problems; heating, plumbing, and electrical deficiencies; water leaks and intrusion; pests; damaged paint; and high radon gas levels. These conditions are associated with a wide range of health issues, including unintentional injuries, respiratory illnesses like asthma and radon-induced lung cancer, and lead poisoning. The health and economic burdens from preventable hazards associated within home are considerable, and cost billions of dollars.
National Healthy Homes Month (NHHM) was established to focus national attention on ways to keep people of all ages safe and healthy in their home. It is aimed at boosting awareness and understanding of what federal and local resources are available. The events planned throughout the month will serve as a public communications campaign to promote awareness and advocacy, encourage local events, and provide resources and support to drive families to take action.
The OLHCHH developed a 2020 National Healthy Homes Month Digital Resource Toolkit; which contains many online, digital resources and materials, to assist with building awareness and implementation at the local level. Visit our website at https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/healthy_homes/nhhm to download the toolkit.
For more information on National Healthy Homes Month 2020, please visit www.hud.gov/healthyhomes.
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