Building Owners
Attend Seminar to Hear About Lead Safety
Measures
Excerpt
from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s February 1, 2019 edition
Building Owners
Meet at UJO with Health Department, HPD at a forum
to hear important information about lead safety measures and the lead grant
for fixing lead problems.
Brooklyn,
NY – On Tuesday evening, January 15, a group of
proprietors of older houses and apartment buildings received important
information from an HPD representative and a Department of Health official. The
seminar was about the safety measures one must take against lead paint damages,
and about the directives and procedure to receive HPD grants to repair lead paint
problems in old houses, which can be especially harmful to young children.
Ms. Sarah Hovde of HPD’s Primary
Prevention Program gave a presentation on the grant that provides thousands of
dollars per apartment in order to remove lead damage and fix the paint. The group
also heard from Mr. Askold Chemych, a Department of Health representative who
works on lead issues.
Participating in the session were
some homeowners who had already begun the procedure of applying for the grants
and were waiting for confirmation. HPD explained that since the grants are
coming from federal funds, they are tied up in various regulations. They are
now at the beginning of a new-grant period, with new federal rules, which
caused grant applications submitted in the last few months to be delayed more than usual. Also, the grants
that will be over $100,000 for bigger buildings are tied to stricter and more
complex bidding procedures, making those take longer. The agency is working,
however, to organize the new grant system with the goal of being able to
provide grants for smaller buildings shortly;
and for larger buildings as soon as possible after
that. To hear if you might be eligible for the grant, you can call the
UJO Lead Safety division.
Free training for construction
workers, superintendents, building owners or property managers, etc. to become certified to work on buildings
with lead paint is also available through the Department of Health. The trainings will take
place on Sundays, March 10th and April 7th from
8:30 a.m.-5: 00 p.m. To register a spot for
you or your workers at one of the trainings,
please call the UJO Lead Safety division at 718-643-9700, ext. 241, or send an
email to leadsafety@unitedjewish.org.
