Eligibility requirements

• Your home or rental property was built before 1978 (the year lead-based paint was banned)
• A child 6 years of age or younger lives at or regularly visits your home or resident’s rental unit
• Your household income or the household income of your resident is at or below these levels

Maximum income levels

Homeowners

Complete this brief intake form. We will contact you to schedule an in-home visit to identify potential lead-based paint hazards.

You can also complete an intake by phone at 612-543-4182.

Rental property owners

You may receive funding for up to 75 percent of the cost of lead hazard reduction, up to $10,000 per unit.

Rental property owners must:

• Allow staff access to the property for paint inspection and risk assessment repairs and clearance testing
• Provide information to tenants on the program and instructions for how to submit income verification and consent forms to Hennepin County
• Help tenants with lodging expenses during required vacancy while lead reduction work is being done (grant funds may pay as much as $175 a day and more than $875 total)
• Ensure lead reduction work is completed within a year of the paint inspection and risk assessment or by November 15, 2018, whichever comes first

Rental property owners or renters should call 612-543-4182 for more details.

What to expect throughout the process

1. Free in-home visit – Our contractor will determine if you have lead hazards, give you information on preventing home health hazards, and, if appropriate, give you some free safety supplies.
2. Grant enrollment – You will complete a grant application, provide income verification documents and any blood lead testing results to qualify for grant enrollment.
3. Risk assessment – After you enroll in the grant, we will conduct a free paint inspection and risk assessment to determine the full scope of lead hazards in your home.
4. Owner’s meeting – We will review the results of the risk assessment and show you the work that must be done. Only windows testing positive for lead will be replaced with grant funds.
5. Lead-safe class – You will attend a 3-hour class to learn how to paint and do small projects in a lead-safe manner.
6. Work performed by you – You may need to perform additional lead reduction work or hire a lead-safe renovator to complete additional work, like painting window trim or your home exterior.
7. Finding a contractor – Once your own work on the home is done, we’ll inspect it and discuss window preferences with you. We’ll help find the right contractor for the rest of the work. We’ll review estimates from two or three contractors and approve the lowest acceptable bid.
8. Grant approval – After we select your contractor, we’ll approve the project up to a certain amount, based on available funds. If you need more than $10,000 to replace all hazardous windows, you may have to cover the remaining cost. We decide funding on a case-by-case basis.
9. Window installation – Once we approve your project, the contractor will schedule time to complete the work. All residents must be out of the home during window replacement. The grant includes lodging expenses up to $175 per day or $875 per week. Once work is done and passes clearance, you can return home. 

Last year, nearly 400 children who had a blood lead test in Hennepin County had blood lead levels high enough to damage their health.

When young children are exposed to lead, they are at risk for:

• Brain and nervous system damage
• Slowed growth and development
• Learning and behavior problems
• Hearing and speech problems 

Homes built before 1978 (when lead-based paints were banned) likely contain lead-based paint.

Fortunately, lead poisoning is 100 percent preventable. Hennepin County has fixed lead-based paint hazards in more than 4,200 homes. View and search through rental properties rehabilitated by Hennepin County on HousingLink's lead-safe housing registry.

View these resources for more information:

• Minnesota Department of Health
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Minnesota-certified lead abatement firms can bid on Hennepin County grant projects. 

Complete and submit the contractor information form (PDF).

Other grant funding and deferred loans are available to repair health related home hazards, like radon, moisture, mold and pests.

If you are a homeowner living with a child who has asthma, you may be eligible for an assessment for asthma triggers and assistance to reduce triggers found in the home.

For more information, call Melisa Illies at 612-348-2020.