Philadelphia also has one of the nation\u2019s oldest housing stocks<\/a> as well as a high poverty rate<\/a>. These factors help explain why so many families struggle to address conditions that could be exacerbating their children\u2019s asthma at home, said Stefanie Seldin, president and CEO at Rebuilding Together Philadelphia.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe run into homes without complete plumbing, without heat, without a safe electrical supply,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, you have that combination and that leads to a lot of folks living in severely unhealthy conditions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The CAPP+ Home Repairs program launched in 2017 and has since completed about 250 asthma-related jobs across the city.\n <\/p>\n Hector Espinosa, program manager at Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, identified several obvious asthma triggers during an initial inspection at the Oglesby home, especially in the daughter\u2019s bedroom.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a roof leak, mold in a closet, mold in the ceiling,\u201d Espinosa said. \u201cWe were able to pull all that down, remediate the mold and then rebuild it for her. Now, her room is safe and sound, there\u2019s a new light fixture, all that good stuff.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Since the family also spends a lot of time in the living room, dining area and kitchen, Espinosa and his team looked at triggers there next. Warped subflooring, dry rot in the walls, deteriorating cabinetry and a gas leak made the kitchen hazardous for anyone, but especially those with asthma.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe ripped the whole thing out,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n Meanwhile, CHOP paid for Oglesby and her family to stay elsewhere while the construction crew did repairs. They came back to a brand new kitchen within days. The transformation has enabled the family to make better use of the space, Oglesby said.\n<\/p>\n The home repairs have been especially beneficial for her daughter, she said, who is enjoying her upgraded bedroom.\n<\/p>\n \u201cSince then, she hasn\u2019t had any hospital stays,\u201d Oglesby said. \u201cThat\u2019s a success story for me.\u201d Sustaining asthma prevention and remediation in Philly<\/p>\n Despite the program\u2019s success, Robin Williams, a home visitor and asthma educator at CHOP, said she meets families who still don\u2019t know about it.\n<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it\u2019s a lot of reaching out to the community just to tell them who we are,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd hopefully, we can reach everybody.\u201d\n<\/p>\n But as awareness increases, demand for repair services has grown. A waitlist to get asthma remediation services has over 600 families and patients, said program leaders.\n<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we are never going to run out of patients,\u201d Seldin said. \u201cSo, of course, we want to continue this effort.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The program, unique in its proliferation throughout the city, is mostly funded by CHOP and philanthropic donations. Ideally, Bryant-Stephens said there\u2019d be more public investment in programs that tackle chronic diseases like asthma and have proven outcomes.\n<\/p>\n \u201cChildren are sleeping through the night. We hear all the time that they\u2019re not using their rescue medicine as much,\u201d she said of the program\u2019s successes. \u201cTo be able to see these benefits \u2026 has been really gratifying and really supports our notion that this is important work that needs to be done.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How older homes and costly repairs can prolong asthma triggers Nearly 7% of children in the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30291,36313,69,71,70,105140],"class_list":["post-245664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-asthma","tag-chop","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-rebuilding-together-philadelphia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Homeowner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-07-e-lee-tanesha-oglesby-hector-espinosa-philadelphia-chop-program-for-eliminating-asthma-tr.jpeg\")
Homeowner Tanesha Oglesby and Hector Espinosa of Rebuilding Together Philadelphia stand in her new kitchen, remodeled through the Children\u2019s Hospital of Pennsylvania Community Asthma Prevention Program. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Robin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-07-e-lee-robin-williams-philadelphia-chop-program-for-eliminating-asthma-triggers-in-home-10.jpeg\")
Robin Williams is an asthma home visitor for Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n