DC Healthy Housing Collaborative
The DC Healthy Housing Collaborative is a multi-sector coalition seeking to address substandard housing conditions that contribute to significant health issues affecting District of Columbia residents.
The relationship between poor housing conditions and certain health problems such as asthma and lead poisoning is well-documented. In D.C., a person’s race, income, and neighborhood too often predict the potential for poor housing conditions that can negatively influence health. The DC Healthy Housing Collaborative (DCHHC) convenes a broad range of partners representing government agencies, healthcare, public health, health insurance providers, housing services, legal services, policy advocacy groups, financial institutions, and many others, united in pursuit of policy and systems changes that will lead to healthier housing conditions. We are a core member of the DCHHC and serves as the Collaborative’s backbone organization.
We envision a DC where all housing promotes health, wellness, safety, and is affordable. DC will be a city where all are welcome and can thrive in powerful resilient and well-resourced communities.
Building Community & Workforce Capacity
In 2020, we received the Lead-Safe and Healthy Housing for DC Kids grant from DC’s Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) and the CDC to mobilize multisector partners to address housing conditions that put disadvantaged children in the District at disproportionate risk for lead exposure and asthma. Through this grant, IPHI and the DCHHC will support stakeholder engagement, planning, training, mobilizing, and product development activities to improve community and workforce knowledge, awareness, and capacity to address lead and other home health hazards. The grant will support the creation of collaborative action plans for reducing housing-related health disparities and education and training of key stakeholders to strengthen community capacity to identify and address lead, mold, pests, and other home health hazards.
Healthy Housing COVID-19 Resources
We just launched two videos and resources to help residents with healthy housing challenges in their homes during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Keep Mice and Rodents Out of Your Home!
- Tip Sheet – Keep Pests Out of Your Home
- Tip Sheet – Mandarin
- Tip Sheet – Amharic
- Tip Sheet – Spanish
- Video en español aquí
Keep Asthma Under Control with These Healthy Homes Tips
- Tip Sheet – Keep Asthma Under Control with Healthy Housing Tips
- Tip Sheet – Mandarin
- Tip Sheet – Amharic
- Tip Sheet – Spanish
- Video en español aquí
DC Healthy Housing Collaborative Partner Resources
Children’s Law Center
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- Tenant Self-Advocacy Materials
- These include:
- Information about your rights to have mold properly inspected and repaired under DC law
- A sample letter to your landlord to request repairs
- A sample letter to your landlord with COVID-specific considerations, such as requesting your landlord to wear a mask, give you advanced notice of entry, and sending limited people to do repairs.
DC Department of Energy and the Environment
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- Mold – What to Do: Information on how to manage mold under DC’s mold law
- DC Partnership for Healthy Homes: Program where participants receive a comprehensive home environmental assessment and energy audit, family education, asthma management diagnostic, and case management coordination.
- Lead-Safe and Healthy Homes: Information on DC’s Lead Safe and Healthy Homes Program
IMPACT DC
IMPACT DC Asthma Clinic is an award-winning pediatric asthma program in Washington, DC, dedicated to improving asthma care and outcomes for children through clinical care, education, research, and advocacy.
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- Resources for Families: Resources on Asthma Management and Healthy Housing
Yachad
Yachad preserves affordable homes and revitalizes neighborhoods throughout D.C. and the great metropolitan area by remediating and improving accessibility of homes.
Yachad created these resources for homeowners and tenants to learn the basics about caring for their homes:
Additional Resources
Tenant’s Rights Information: For more information about your right as a tenant during COVID-19, click here.
DC Healthy Housing Collaborative Mission:
The Collaborative’ s mission is to work in partnership with government, non-profit, private organizations, and communities to ensure that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthy due to DC’s housing conditions.
Together, the DC Healthy Housing Collaborative will:
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- Define and communicate the meaning of healthy housing with DC residents and communities
- Engage stakeholders and create partnerships
- Develop and collectively implement a strategic plan for healthy housing that builds on best practices
- Create systems and innovative models to ensure timely remediation for lower-income households
- Advocate for healthy housing,
- Support public agencies efforts to improve coordination to address healthy housing
- Ensure that everyone in DC has a path to affordable healthy housing
The Collaborative is led by an executive committee made up of organizational representatives and healthy housing leaders who volunteer to serve as leaders of the Collaborative.
Executive Committee Members
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- Scott Bruton, PhD – Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED)
- Cindy Cota, MSW, LICSW – AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia
- Ramon Jacobson, MBA – Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC DC)
- Audrey Lyon – Yachad
- Victoria Melendez, MA – Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC DC)
- Elizabeth Oquendo, Esq., MBA – Children’s Law Center
- Janet Phoenix, MD, MPH – DC Asthma Coalition
- Kathy Zeisel, Esq. – Children’s Law Center
For additional information on the Healthy Housing Collaborative please sign up for the mailing list here.
The DC Healthy Housing Collaborative meets monthly. If you’d like to join, sign up here to receive our meeting invites, emails, and newsletter.
