The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that the City of Knoxville has been awarded $3.6 million in grant program funding to make homes safer and healthier for low-income families.

The City’s Community Development department competed for the funding and received $3 million in Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction grant program funding and $600,000 in Healthy Homes Supplemental funding. Knoxville is one of 48 municipal recipients of the funding and the only one in Tennessee. The City received a similar grant for $2.5 million in 2013. 

With the funding, the City of Knoxville and its partners will address lead hazards in 160 housing units, leading to healthier living environments for low- and very low-income families with children. Low- income households are those with incomes up to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). Knoxville’s AMI for a four-member household in 2018 is $66,600, meaning local low-income households earn $53,300 or less. 

“Lead hazard remediation is very expensive, making it prohibitive for households of modest means to fix and make their homes safer for babies and young children,” says Community Development Director Becky Wade. These services will be particularly helpful to residents of Knoxville neighborhoods established before 1940, when lead-based products were quite common, as well as those built prior to 1978, the year the federal government banned the use of lead-based paints in homes. 

Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee (CAC) will manage the application and enrollment process, which is open to both owner-occupied and rental properties. In addition to lead hazard remediation work, grant funding will provide for healthy homes assessments, which allow for additional safety and health improvements. 

The City will partner with Knoxville Leadership Foundation’s job-training program to train 175 local individuals to remediate lead hazards in homes. Once their training is complete, they will receive state certification. Additional community partners for enrollment and educational opportunities are SEEED (Socially Equal Energy Efficiency Development), Great Schools Partnership, Knox County Health Department, University of Tennessee Knoxville Extension and HomeSource East Tennessee. 

For more information about housing programs offered by the City’s Community Development department, visit http://knoxvilletn.gov/development.