The vice president and the nation’s top housing official on Friday announced an additional $500 million available for states and localities to combat lead exposure and other health hazards in homes, with a focus on disadvantaged communities.

What You Need To Know

  • The vice president and the nation’s top housing official on Friday announced an additional $500 million available for states and localities to combat lead exposure in homes

  • The infrastructure law passed last year invests $55 billion in clean drinking water, with $15 billion for lead pipe replacement

  • Up to 10 million American households and 400,000 schools and child care centers are served by a lead service line or other lead mechanisms, according to the White House, which can impact young children's cognitive development

  • A Pennsylvania lawmaker on Friday said that federal investment in lead pipe replacement is key, since older cities like Pittsburgh often don't have the funds to do it all at once

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Pittsburgh to announce the funding with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, whose department will oversee the new grant money. 

“Every single person deserves to live in a safe home,” Fudge said Friday.

The new $500 million will be available via grants to state and local governments to remove lead paint from homes and address other home health hazards, directing officials to focus on underserved communities. 

“Different communities are dealing with this differently based on what resources they have, and that shouldn't be the case,” Harris said in a conversation with residents who have been impacted by lead in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood.

As part of Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s effort to replace lead water lines, various streets in Homewood had their service lines replaced last year, according to the vice president’s office.

“Government has a responsibility here,” Harris said, pointing to the city’s progress so far. “This is a model of what we will be continuing to do around the country.”

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan also joined the vice president, as his agency oversees billions of dollars in money to replace lead pipes and remediate lead paint. The infrastructure law passed last year invests $55 billion in clean drinking water, with $15 billion for lead pipe replacement.

“We want to make sure that the communities that need these resources the most are front in line, because they have been shut out of government funding for far too long,” Regan said.

Congressman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said Friday that the infrastructure funding was key for cities like Pittsburgh, where some water lines are more than 100 years old.

“We've got a lot of lead pipes here. And it's expensive to remove them. It's beyond the scope of a lot of local governments, and so these projects get done piecemeal,” Doyle said.

Up to 10 million American households and 400,000 schools and child care centers are served by a lead service line or other lead mechanisms, according to the White House. And about 24 million homes have “significant” lead-based paint risk, including 4 million that are home to young children.

And exposure to lead in drinking water can cause decreases in IQ and attention span in children and babies, plus increases in learning and behavior problems, according to the EPA. Adults can have increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney or nervous system problems.

Low-income people and communities of color are most at risk, because they are more likely to live in housing built during times when lead products were still often used. 

The Biden administration announced in December an action plan to tackle removing lead pipes and paint around the country, with the goal of removing all lead pipes within ten years. 

The EPA announced in March $2.9 billion from the infrastructure law for lead service line replacement in 2022. Around $4 billion total has been announced since December to tackle lead, much of it from the infrastructure dollars.