I 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5244 
To establish the Council on Healthy Housing and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 29, 2014 
Ms. ESTY (for herself, Ms. SLAUGHTER, and Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Fi-
nancial Services 
A BILL 
To establish the Council on Healthy Housing and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Housing 
Council Act of 2014’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) In the United States— 
(A) 5,757,000 households live in homes 
with moderate or severe physical hazards; 
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(B) 23,000,000 homes have significant 
lead-based paint hazards; 
(C) 6,000,000 homes have had signs of 
mice in the last 3 months; and 
(D) 1 in 15 homes have dangerous levels 
of radon. 
(2) Residents of housing that is poorly de-
signed, constructed, or maintained are at risk for 
cancer, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns, falls, ro-
dent bites, childhood lead poisoning, asthma, and 
other illnesses and injuries. Vulnerable subpopula-
tions, such as children and the elderly, are at ele-
vated risk for housing-related illnesses and injuries. 
(3) Because substandard housing typically 
poses the greatest risks, the disparities in the dis-
tribution of housing-related health hazards are strik-
ing. One million two hundred thousand housing 
units with significant lead-based paint hazards house 
low-income families with children under 6 years of 
age. 
(4) Housing-related illnesses, including asthma 
and lead poisoning, disproportionately affect children 
from lower-income families and from specific racial 
and ethnic groups. The prevalence of being diag-
nosed with asthma in a lifetime is 24 percent among 
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Puerto Rican children, 10.1 percent for Mexican- 
American children, 12.4 percent for non-Hispanic 
White children, and 21.8 percent for non-Hispanic 
Black children. Black children are twice as likely to 
die from residential injuries as White children, and 
3 percent of Black children and 2 percent of Mexi-
can-American children have elevated blood lead lev-
els, as compared to only 1.3 percent of White chil-
dren. 
(5) The annual costs for environmentally attrib-
utable childhood diseases in the United States, in-
cluding lead poisoning, asthma, and cancer, total 
$76,000,000,000 in 2008 dollars. This amount is 
approximately 3.5 percent of total health care costs. 
(6) Appropriate housing design, construction, 
and maintenance, timely correction of deficiencies, 
planning efforts, and low-cost preventive measures 
can reduce the incidence of serious injury or death, 
improve the ability of residents to survive in the 
event of a major catastrophe, and contribute to over-
all well-being and mental health. Lead hazard con-
trol in homes with lead-based paint hazards can re-
duce children’s blood lead levels by as much as 34 
percent. Properly installed and maintained smoke 
alarms reduce the risk of fire deaths by 50 percent. 
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(7) Providing healthy housing to families and 
individuals in the United States will help prevent an 
estimated 250,000 children from having elevated 
blood lead levels, 18,000 injury deaths, 12,000,000 
nonfatal injuries, 3,000 deaths in house fires, 9,600 
emergency department visits for carbon monoxide 
exposure, and 21,000 radon-associated lung cancer 
deaths that occur in United States housing each 
year, as well as 12,300,000 asthma attacks, and 
14,000,000 missed school days. 
(8) While there are many programs in place to 
address housing-related health hazards, these pro-
grams are fragmented and spread across many agen-
cies, making it difficult for at-risk families and indi-
viduals to access assistance or to receive comprehen-
sive information. 
(9) Better coordination among Federal agencies 
is needed, as is better coordination at State and 
local levels, to ensure that families and individuals 
can access government programs and services in an 
effective and efficient manner. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act, the following definitions shall apply: 
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(1) COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘Council’’ means the 
Interagency Council on Healthy Housing established 
under section 4. 
(2) HEALTHY
HOUSING.—The term ‘‘healthy 
housing’’ means housing that is designed, con-
structed, rehabilitated, and maintained in a manner 
that supports the health of the occupants of such 
housing. 
(3) HOUSING.—The term ‘‘housing’’ means any 
form of residence, including rental housing, home-
ownership, group home, or supportive housing ar-
rangement. 
(4) HOUSING-RELATED HEALTH HAZARD.—The 
term ‘‘housing-related health hazard’’ means any bi-
ological, physical, or chemical source of exposure or 
condition either in, or immediately adjacent to, hous-
ing, that can adversely affect human health. 
(5) LOW-INCOME
FAMILIES
AND
INDIVID-
UALS.—The term ‘‘low-income families and individ-
uals’’ means any household or individual with an in-
come at or below 200 percent of the Federal poverty 
line. 
(6) POVERTY LINE.—The term ‘‘poverty line’’ 
means the official poverty line defined by the Office 
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of Management and Budget based on the most re-
cent data available from the Bureau of the Census. 
(7) PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘program’’ includes 
any Federal, State, or local program providing hous-
ing or financial assistance, health care, mortgages, 
bond and tax financing, homebuyer support courses, 
financial education, mortgage insurance or loan 
guarantees, housing counseling, supportive services, 
energy assistance, or other assistance related to 
healthy housing. 
(8) SERVICE.—The term ‘‘service’’ includes 
public and environmental health services, housing 
services, energy efficiency services, human services, 
and any other services needed to ensure that fami-
lies and individuals in the United States have access 
to healthy housing. 
SEC. 4. INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HEALTHY HOUSING. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the ex-
ecutive branch an independent council to be known as the 
Interagency Council on Healthy Housing. 
(b) OBJECTIVES.—The objectives of the Council are 
as follows: 
(1) To promote the supply of and demand for 
healthy housing in the United States through capac-
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ity building, technical assistance, education, and 
public policy. 
(2) To promote coordination and collaboration 
among the Federal departments and agencies in-
volved with housing, public health, energy efficiency, 
emergency preparedness and response, and the envi-
ronment to improve services for families and individ-
uals residing in inadequate or unsafe housing and to 
make recommendations about needed changes in 
programs and services with an emphasis on— 
(A) maximizing the impact of existing pro-
grams and services by transitioning the focus of 
such programs and services from categorical ap-
proaches to comprehensive approaches that con-
sider and address multiple housing-related 
health hazards; 
(B) reducing or eliminating areas of over-
lap and duplication in the provision and accessi-
bility of such programs and services; 
(C) ensuring that resources, including as-
sistance with capacity building, are targeted to 
and sufficient to meet the needs of high-risk 
communities, families, and individuals; and 
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