Healthy Homes Practitioner Training Now Available to Home Inspectors

by Heidi J. Shaw October 1, 2009

Because home inspectors are on the front line when it comes to evaluating the integrity of the home environment, it seemed to make sense for ASHI to become involved in promoting a unique credential to its members.

ASHI, the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) are working together to promote the Healthy Homes Specialist (HHS) credential to ensure that ASHI members are part of a knowledgeable workforce assisting the public in its growing concern over the issue of healthy homes.

The need for the specialty is evident. Environmental hazards in the home harm millions of children each year. In 1999, in response to a congressional directive over concerns about child environmental health, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched its Healthy Homes Initiative (HHI) to protect children and their families from housing-related health and safety hazards. HUD has since developed a Healthy Homes Strategic Plan that lays out the next steps to advance the healthy homes agenda nationwide.

In 2006, the National Healthy Homes Training Center and Network (Training Center) and the NEHA collaborated to develop the Healthy Homes Specialist (HHS) credential. The HHS credential was developed with the intent of creating a trained workforce dedicated to healthy homes issues. The first and only of its kind, the HHS credential signifies that an individual has demonstrated competency in the basics of seven principles and how to put them into practice in homes.

The HHS credential tests the professional’s knowledge, skills and abilities to assess the deficiencies and hazards associated with unsafe homes. This new tool was designed to bridge the gap between public health and housing professionals. It can serve as an ancillary service to those already going into a home to perform an assessment of some sort.

NCHH, formerly known as the National Center for Lead-Safe Housing and founded in 1992, manages the Training Center through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention with the support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and HUD.

The goal of the training center is to provide public health professionals, including environmental public health practitioners, public health nurses and housing specialists, the requisite training and tools necessary for addressing the broad ranges of housing deficiencies and hazards associated with unhealthy and unsafe homes.

The training center also seeks to bring together housing and health professionals to leverage their knowledge, efforts and resources. Since its inception in 2005, the center has trained over 2,000 individuals, expanded from seven to more than 30 partners, and developed videos and courses including the following:

  • Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioners (as well as a modified version of the course for homeinspectors), and
  • Healthy Homes for Code Inspectors

The HHS credential provides ASHI members with an opportunity to be on the forefront of the healthy homes initiative as the housing specialist with all the right training and tools. For more information on the HHS credential and training opportunities, please visit the special landing page for ASHI members: www.neha.org/credential/ASHI.html.

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 Healthy Homes Specialist Pre-Conference Course Offered at InspectionWorld Las Vegas

Do you want to add a skill to your inspection business that will differentiate you from other inspectors?

As an experienced home inspector, you can complete this course in the one-day “refresher” class format being offered this year at InspectionWorld by the National Center for Healthy Housing. You will have the option of taking the credentialing exam at the end of the instruction, or you can wait to take the exam at a later date.

Find complete information at www.inspectionworld.org/04healthyhomes.html.

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