La Colaborativa Receives Funding for Housing Code App

Chelsea’s La Colaborativa was one of four communities that recently received funding from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to help improve public health in Environmental Justice communities.

The $25,000 for La Colaborativa will address the environmental health impacts of poor housing conditions by expanding its “Up to Code Toolkit,” a multilingual web-based toolkit for residents to document housing code violations and hazardous living conditions.

The multilingual housing code toolkit was introduced last spring and allows tenants to fill out a form with housing complaints that is then sent to Chelsea building inspectors and the landlord.

In total, the DPH announced $100,000 in funding to four organizations, including Everett Community Growers, which will will build on its “Heat, Health, and Housing – Organizing for Resident-led Strategies for Development Without Displacement” project, a series of community workshops focused on developing climate-resilient solutions that do not lead to gentrification and displacement.

These funds are part of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant awarded to DPH’s Bureau of Environmental Health to build on efforts to detect, prevent, and control environmental hazards through investing in evidence-based decision-making tools, workforce training, and community outreach.

Also receiving funding were the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts in Springfield and the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts in Worcester.

These funds are part of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant awarded to DPH’s Bureau of Environmental Health to build on efforts to detect, prevent, and control environmental hazards through investing in evidence-based decision-making tools, workforce training, and community outreach. Each organization will receive $25,000 between January and June 2023 to implement interventions aimed at reducing environmental exposures and potential health impacts. DPH will provide technical assistance and solicit grantee feedback to inform the development of analytical tools, resources, and collaborative networks to better address environmental and climate justice issues across Massachusetts.

“This award underscores our ongoing efforts to prioritize and address disparities in social determinants of health, which include environmental health,” said Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke. “These four projects will provide us with valuable insight into how community-level interventions may be leveraged to build environmental health capacity across the state.”

For this pilot, DPH sought proposals from organizations providing services to a select group of municipalities that have borne the disproportionate burden of both COVID-19 and exposure to environmental health hazards.

This funding is supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a larger financial assistance award totaling $500,000. The remaining funds will be used to support project management, online public health workforce training focused on specific environmental hazards in Massachusetts, and to develop guidance to provide a framework for identifying people or populations who are the most vulnerable in Environmental Justice communities and develop best practices to achieve equitable health outcomes.

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