Submitted photo From left are Yolanda A. Brown, Acting Deputy Director, Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, (HUD); Vince DeJoy, Director of Planning & Development; Johanna Miller, HUD Grant Technical Representative.

The city of Dunkirk has been awarded a $1.9 million grant from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for a Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building Grant Program, to build a supply of local contractors trained and certified to remove and abate lead in homes with young children.

The city was subrecipient to an award to Chautauqua Housing Rehabilitation and Improvement Corporation (CHRIC) of Mayville to implement a program to train and certify contractors to remove the lead hazard in Dunkirk homes. The City of Dunkirk Department of Planning & Development will administer and manage the grant.

Vince DeJoy, director of the Department of Planning and Development, is program director for the grant. DeJoy recently attended a mandatory new grantee orientation and program manager training session in Arlington, Virginia.

Hanna Crossley from CHRIC, who will be program manager, also attended and participated in the four-day training. All travel and training costs are covered by the grant.

“The HUD team has been phenomenal working directly with Dunkirk during the training and start-up period,” said DeJoy. “Dunkirk has some of the highest blood lead concentrations in young children under five years old, and this grant will address the lead hazards by having contractors remove the offending lead found especially in older homes in Dunkirk.”

The next phase of the program will be community outreach by CHRIC, working with Dunkirk schools and pediatric healthcare providers. Dunkirk is also working closely with Anna Powell, childhood lead and healthy homes coordinator/senior public health sanitarian for the Chautauqua County Health Department’s Division of Environmental Health.

Additional details for programs and events are forthcoming from CHRIC Community Outreach Coordinator Lisa Schmidtfrerick-Miller.