Green and Healthy Homes Initiative - Buffalo

In communities
like Buffalo that struggle with an aging and deteriorating housing stock as
well as high poverty and unemployment rates, many children and their families
are forced to live in homes that are unhealthy, unsafe and
not energy efficient. These factors can contribute to serious problems such
as frequent visits to the emergency room for uncontrolled asthma due to mold
exposure; poor academic performance due
to brain damage from lead poisoning; and increased poverty due to high
heating bills.  Despite the fact that these issues are all related to
housing, the past model for addressing them relies on disparate programs
with little or no coordination. 

The
Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) is a model to redefine home-based
health and safety funding and programs so that they are at once more effective
in terms of health outcomes and more efficient in terms of cost savings.  The GHHI approach also provides economic
benefit to families in the form of cost savings, develops career pathways to
higher-paying ‘green’ jobs, and produces more stable neighborhoods by
increasing the quality of housing stock. 

Interventions to address asthma include identification and removal of home-environmental triggers, as well as one-on-one resident education about asthma management and trigger control. 

Buffalo's Green and Healthy Homes Initiative is currently in its pilot implementation phase.  It is led by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo,