Houston awarded $8.7 million to protect families from lead, other home health and safety hazards
Officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development say they have awarded 26 state and government agencies with more than $125 million in an effort to protect children and families from lead-based paint and additional hazards within their homes.
Puerto Rico to get billions for storm aid, reconstruction
SAN JUAN โ Puerto Rico is slated to receive more than $6 billion in federal funds to help prepare the U.S. territory for future hurricanes and other disasters, officials said Tuesday. The money assigned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would be used for infrastructure projects and economic development, among other things, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said. In addition, Puerto Rico now has access to $3.2 billion to continue rebuilding from hurricanes Irma and Maria, said Pierluisi, who praised the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for acting quickly. Congress had assigned $67 billion to help with reconstruction efforts after the hurricanes devastated the island in September 2017, but of the $43 billion obligated, Puerto Rico has only received $18 billion amid concerns over how the money would be spent.
COVID-19 is a crisis within a crisis for homeless people
Homeless people are among the most vulnerable populations in the COVID-19 pandemic, yet they're largely invisible victims. ___This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center and produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State Universitys Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. ___At the start of the pandemic, researchers warned that at least 1,700 of the countrys estimated 568,000 homeless people could eventually die of COVID-19. The Howard Center spent three months investigating COVID-19s impact on homeless people, analyzing data to predict which homeless populations around the country would be most vulnerable. The city manager in Sanger, California, opposed housing homeless people possibly infected with COVID-19 in emergency trailers in his town before he was ordered to take them by the county public health department, records show.