Healthy Homes

We’re working to ensure access to safe rental housing, free of lead paint hazards, particularly for low-income people and people of color who are most at risk.

While lead paint was banned in 1978, children of color are still suffering from lead poisoning at much higher rates than white children. This is tied to exposure to old, poorly maintained housing. Ultimately what’s needed is a strong system to inspect and correct housing before children are living there.

Like the rest of the country, our home state of Maine essentially uses children as human lead detectors. That is, rather than proactively looking for dangerous housing, the state waits until kids are lead poisoned and then crack down on the housing. We must change the paradigm so that we actually inspect housing before children are poisoned.

To win systemic change, we’re building alliances with immigrant groups in Maine to share our subject matter expertise and build grassroots power on the ground to achieve new policies to make sure all children are living in healthy homes.