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About the Healthy Homes Initiative
Everyone deserves access to healthy and safely hazard-free housing. Unfortunately, not everyone in our community can count on that, particularly our lower-income residents, those with disabilities, seniors, and communities of color. Equity and the conditions for healthy housing cannot be created overnight, but together, we can make meaningful changes that improve residents’ quality of life in just a few years.
The Healthy Homes Initiative works to ensure all Alexandrians have healthy and safe, hazard-free housing. Based on a 2022 report put together by the Alexandria Health Department and the National Center on Healthy Housing, the Healthy Homes Initiative includes several programs led by different departments, community-based organizations, landlords, and homeowners in Alexandria. Each year, different programs will advance the Healthy Homes Initiative in different ways.
Action Plan for 2023
Community partners and residents have shared their experience and knowledge to help create a roadmap for the next year of healthy housing initiatives . This work is implemented by Alexandria’s Healthy Homes Network—a coalition launched in June 2023 to improve home conditions.
We need your help to get this work done. Email healthmatters@vdh.virginia.gov to get involved either as a resident or an organization.
Healthy Homes Network Members
- *Co-Chair Alexandria Health Department
- *Co-Chair Rebuilding Together
- ACT for Alexandria
- Alexandria City Public Schools
- ALIVE!
- ARHA
- Cedar Architecture
- City of Alexandria Code Administration
- City of Alexandria Department of Community and Human Services
- City of Alexandria Fire Department
- City of Alexandria Office of Climate Action
- City of Alexandria Office of Housing
- City of Alexandria Office of Race and Social Equity
- City of Alexandria Office of Performance and Analytics
- Carefirst
- CIM Group
- Commission on Aging
- Edu-Futuro
- Housing Alexandria
- Inova Health System
- Legal Services of Northern Virginia
- Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria
- Public Health Advisory Commission
- Senior Services of Alexandria
- Tenants and Workers United
ALX Breathes
As part of the Healthy Homes Initiative, AHD partnered with the community to create ALX Breathes. ALX Breathes is a free program from the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) that helps residents with asthma or COPD breathe easier at home.
Background on Home Conditions in Alexandria
The Alexandria Health Department worked with the National Center on Healthy Housing to review local healthy homes policy, program, and data assets and gaps in Alexandria. Read the report here and find the detailed code analysis here. This report showed that while the city has some resources to deal with the challenges around home-related health conditions, we needed to do more to coordinate those efforts and truly address the root causes of poor health. The Action Plan for 2023 is the next step in this work to coordinate existing resources and partners for systemic change.