WARSAW — In hopes to help receive future grants, Warsaw Housing Authority is conducting a Healthy Homes Study with assistance from IPFW nursing students.

“We are a rural community and we have some people in this community that make more money than in other communities, said Pam Kennedy, executive director of Housing Opportunities. “So it makes our area medium income higher, which takes points off grants that we get.”

To combat this problem, a Healthy Home Study will be conducted similarly to larger cities such as Indianapolis and Detroit. IPFW’s graduating nursing program will help with the study for one to two years. The students will travel around Warsaw to look at lead, radon, allergens, rodents, falling and tripping risks and much more within homes.

Historically, homes have been proven to cause health issues. “This assessment will tell us … what our issues are and be able to go after grants,” said Kennedy.

Health assessments will also be done on the house’s residents. Kennedy explained that cockroaches are one of the leading causes of asthma in children. If a child has asthma and the house contains cockroaches, the study will be able to track this trend. This is just one of the many health factors to be tested.

Kennedy also noted that the assessments will be kept separate in terms of Warsaw and Kosciusko County limits. This will allow the study to show if an issue is strictly a city or county problem.

After the study is completed, the research department at the school will publish the results. This will ensure the information is scientific based. The research department will then present the information discovered to the local medical profession so medical employees know what issues are in local homes.

One final step of the study will be each student coming up with a solution to a specific issue discovered during the study.

“We believe that in 2018 and 2019 it will give us a head start for some of the housing grants because we will have identified exactly what we need and what type of grant we need here,” said Kennedy.

The first batch of ten students will begin the study next week on Aug. 23.