KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The City of Kalamazoo has just received a huge new $3.5-million grant from Washington to do lead abatement in some of the city’s older homes. And city officials say it’s part of the overall strategy to create safe and affordable housing, particularly for children, who are most susceptible to the effects of the heavy metal.
Housing Development Supervisor Sherilyn Parsons says the City will be working through Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services to remove old lead paint in 126 homes. She says low income homeowners or tenants are eligible.
“You have to have a child under the age of 6. And as long as the landlord agrees, then the work can be done,” said Parsons who noted that one challenges they have faced is finding enough certified worker. She went onto say that part of the new grant will fund training.
“Over the weekend, we did some mass marketing. And the state reached out to us and said, well we now have a good problem. We now have 50 people signed up for that training,” continued Parsons who says the latest grant is coming in the nick of time because they just depleted their last major source of lead abatement funding, a $1.9 million HUD grant they received 4 years ago.
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