Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Poor housing conditions contribute to a wide range of health conditions, including unintentional injuries, respiratory illness, asthma, and cancer, which disproportionately impact susceptible and vulnerable populations, such as children, the poor, minorities, and people with chronic medical conditions. For example— according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, nearly 6,000,000 housing units in the United States had moderate to severe physical infrastructure problems other than problems with lead in 2007; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 23,000,000 housing units, most of them built before 1960, have 1 or more lead-based paint hazards, where young children under age 6 are endangered by chipping or peeling lead paint or excessive amounts of lead-contaminated dust.
Of these homes, about 1,100,000 housed low-income families with 1 or more children under age 6; low-level lead poisoning is widespread among children in the United States, afflicting hundreds of thousands of children under age 6, with minority and low-income communities affected disproportionately; costs for asthma due to dampness and mold were estimated at $3,500,000,000 in 2004, according to the International Journal of Environment and Health; the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that about 17,000,000 homes have elevated levels of 4 or more allergens, a condition that is associated with symptoms among residents with allergic asthma; the Environmental Protection Agency found that more than 6,800,000 housing units have radon exposures above the current Environmental Protection Agency radon action level; and the National Institutes of Health estimates that radon exposures result in 21,000 radon-induced lung cancer deaths per year, which cost $2,300,000,000 per year.
The Federal Government must continue its leadership in demonstrating and implementing projects that assess and correct health hazards in the home environment to support the national goal of providing decent, safe, and sanitary housing to every family in the United States.