Ensuring the health and safety of the 140,000 members of the National Association of Home Builders is always top-of-mind for me as chairman, but the current COVID-19 pandemic has required all of us to balance our thinking.
The need for new housing has not disappeared with the coming of this pandemic. Keeping residential construction going makes sense, especially in parts of the U.S. facing severe housing shortages. NAHB has worked hard to have home building designated as an “essential critical infrastructure workforce” at federal, state, and local levels.
None of this should be at the expense of safety, however. Because of safety measures taken by home builders and remodelers, we’ve been able to stay on the job without jeopardizing the safety of our workforce.
Safety takes detailed planning, an understanding of best practices, and effective communication to make a difference for builders and their crews. NAHB, as a leading member of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition—a group of 25 trade associations committed to creating safer jobsites—created a detailed plan that every employer, employee, and subcontractor can use on the jobsite to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure.
NAHB and our CISC partners also conducted a series of Job Site Safety Stand Downs this spring, with hundreds of member companies halting work on construction sites to educate workers on steps to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and keep themselves safe. Local and national news stories and millions of social media impressions have also amplified public awareness of the steps home builders are taking to keep workers and their communities safe.
Guidelines include limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people, practicing social distancing of at least 6 feet, and wearing face coverings when distancing is difficult to maintain. Where residential construction is deemed an essential infrastructure business, workers are following this CDC guidance to protect both individual and community health. Resources available at NAHB.org/coronavirus include:
- Customizable safety plans to meet state or local requirements that may supersede—and be more stringent than—federal guidelines;
- Recommendations on personal protective equipment, work practice controls, and cleaning and disinfecting procedures;
- Instructions on what to do if a worker becomes sick;
- Recordkeeping requirements;
- Posters, video toolbox talks and checklists; and
- Authorization letters for workers to carry with them in case they are requested by law enforcement.
As stay-at-home orders end and work resumes across the U.S., it is our job as home builders to help lead the way out of the crisis and lift up our economy as we work to provide safe, affordable housing for all. While we do so, safety will remain—as always—the most important factor on our jobsites.
