Clinton J. Andrews, Bloustein School professor of urban planning and director of the school’s Rutgers Center for Green Building, is the principal investigator of a new project, “Cost-Effective Detection of Multi-Family Housing-Related Health and Safety Hazards,” that has been awarded $687,000 in 2013 HUD Healthy Homes Technical Studies funds. Co-PIs will be Jie Gong, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering/CAIT, and Gedi Mainelis, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The project will test and refine cost-effective methods for detecting health and safety hazards in affordable housing by using laser and infrared imaging equipment capable of detecting structural deficiencies, moisture, mold, breaches in insulation, insect harborages and vermin tracks at very detailed levels and, by leveraging building information models created from laser scan data, to gain systems level understanding of patterns of health and safety hazards. This work will be conducted at two to three multi-family housing sites. It is the goal that this research will lead to improved knowledge about the occurrence and patterns of health related building deficiencies and enhanced resident quality of life for occupants of HUD-assisted and other forms of lower-income housing.
Click here for the HUD press release.