Profit and nonprofit organizations are being sought to clean up lead paint problems in 600 pre-1950 housing units in Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket and Woonsocket.

The cleanup work will be done at no charge to the homeowners. It is being paid for by the DuPont company as part of a settlement it reached with the state in 2005 to avoid further prosecution in the state’s lead paint lawsuit.

For some time, the estimated $12-million settlement looked like a good deal for DuPont. A jury later found three other defendants, Sherwin-Williams, Millennium Holdings and NL Industries, created a public nuisance by selling the lead paints in Rhode Island that later poisoned thousands of children.

The three defendants faced potential expenses of billions of dollars as the state prepared plans for them to remove their paints from hundreds of thousands of houses. But last month the state Supreme Court overturned the case, arguing that the companies couldn’t be held liable for a nuisance they had no control over.

Regardless of the high court’s decision, Attorney General Patrick Lynch is moving to distribute money from the DuPont payment. Under the terms of the settlement, the company donated $1 million to Brown University Medical School and $2.5 million to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston. It also set aside funds for education and outreach. Last winter, $610,000 from that source was awarded to six community organizations around the state.

Yesterday, Lynch announced plans to request proposals from organizations to perform the biggest portion of the settlement’s mission — to make 600 housing units in four communities lead safe.

Lynch made the announcement at a residence in Smith Hill that had just been made lead safe by the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation/CLEAR Corps RI.

The next phase of work will be supervised by the Healthy Kids Collaborative, a statewide program funded by DuPont, working in partnership with Lynch and the Children’s Health Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based organization sponsored by DuPont.

The organizations want the 600 homes cleaned up within three years and they prefer that 90 percent of the properties chosen be multifamily houses and the remainder be single family.

The project targets neighborhoods that have concentrations of families living below federal low-income guidelines, where there are high numbers of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood, and large numbers of families with young children, and where the houses are older.

The applicants will be charged with recruiting and enrolling properties for the abatement work.

The neighborhoods where the work will be targeted are:

• Central Falls, bounded by Pine, Richardson, Fuller and Hunt streets.

• Pawtucket, bounded by Route 95, Conant, Main and Comstock streets.

• Providence, bounded by Smith, Orms, Valley, Ayrault and Oakland streets.

• Providence, bounded by Chalkstone, Ayrault, Valley, Wolcott, Regent and Harold streets.

• Providence, bounded by Route 10, Chapin, Messer and Union streets.

• Providence, bounded by Cranston, Dexter and Hanover streets.

• Woonsocket, bounded by Hamlet, Davison, Manville, Bernon, Maple and Grove streets.

The deadline for responding to the request for proposals is Sept. 19. Details can be found at the Web sites of the Children’s Health Forum at www.chf4kids.org, or from the attorney general’s office at www.riag.state.ri.us.

plord@projo.com