Peoria County Health Department receives grant funding for its Lead Safe program

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Peoria County Health Department will help remove lead paint from local homes.

The health department was awarded just over $6,000,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue its Lead Safe Program.

The program started in 2019 and has helped more than 200 families remove the toxic metal in their homes. With this grant funding, the health department will be able to remove the lead from another 240 homes in the area.

The county’s Director of Environmental Health said many homes in the area from before 1978 have lead paint because they were painted before lead paint was banned.

“Unfortunately, a lot of those houses are older. They’re in areas of the city or the county that maybe don’t have the best maintenance, so lead hazards are present. So our focus area is 61603, 04, 05, and 06 with houses that have children under six,” Carey Panier said.

The grant will start in mid-November and go on for two years.

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