REDUCING UNSAFE HOUSING
Reducing Unsafe Housing
Housing is a health issue: children can get lead poisoned, senior citizens can fall on rotten floors, everyone can get carbon monoxide poisoning from dangerous heaters or stoves, people with asthma can have attacks triggered by mold or cockroaches where leaking roofs or plumbing make moisture problems. Housing is also a public safety issue: abandoned buildings are magnets for crime and are subject to fires–and keep away investment in economic development.
Because housing gets in unsafe condition for a variety of reasons, Greensboro needs a comprehensive approach to reducing unsafe housing. Educating residents–both tenants and homeowners–about keeping housing clean is a start; educating property owners about making repairs promptly and in a safe manner–disturbing lead paint can make things worse!–is essential. But repair resources are also needed to assist property owners who cannot afford the necessary work. And enforcement–through inspectors and attorneys–is needed when property owners do not keep housing up to at least minimum housing safety standards.
To reduce unsafe housing, Greensboro Housing Coalition does outreach to residents concerned about housing conditions to help them identify the problems and understand what they can do to correct these. GHC assists homeowners in applying for repair programs and helps tenants put repair requests in writing to their landlords. GHC also works with our partners–especially Housing Greensboro/Habitat home repair program, City of Greensboro’s Lead Safe Housing and other rehab programs, and City of Greensboro code enforcement inspectors–to expand and strengthen their programs to further reduce the number of unsafe homes in our community. GHC tracks the number of homes our partners identify as unsafe so that we can all measure Greensboro’s success in making homes healthy. Watch for the SCORECARD in each newsletter!