Anyone who’s ever bought or lived in an older home knows there is always something to fix. In an ideal situation, it’s a patch here, some paint there, but older homes are sometimes plagued with environmental problems that can threaten the health of their occupants. These issues run the gamut from lead paint chips to mold to leaky stoves and furnaces. A new program in Lansing is now training assessors to not only document those defects, but to help improve residents’ health.The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative is a national program that’s new in Lansing, but it’s been underway for some time in Detroit and Flint. It combines an energy efficiency audit with a health risk assessment to show people not only what may be on its face a potential danger in their homes, but how it could affect their health.
Current State’s Kevin Lavery went on a walk through of a foreclosed home in Lansing with a handful of people undergoing this training.