Montco Gets $1.8 Million To Fight Lead Poisoning In Pottstown

POTTSTOWN, PA — Montgomery County has received a major grant from the federal government to help battle lead poisoning and other in-home hazards in Lansdale and Pottstown.

The $1.8 million in funding, to be administered by the county's Department of Health and Human Services, comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

There are more than 163,000 homes around Montgomery County that were built before 1978, and many of them are in Lansdale. Homes built before then are at risk for lead exposure.

Specifically, the grant will be utilized for county efforts to remediate homes owned or occupied by low-income families with children under 6.

"HUD understands the close connection between health and housing,” said Matthew Ammon, Director of HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, said in a statement.

The program includes public health nurses who monitor a child's lead level, and environmental health specialists who identify lead hazards in the home and work on remediation tactics.

HUD awarded more than $314 million to 77 state and local governments; Montgomery County was one of just six winners in all of Pennsylvania.