The Other Lead Crisis

By Teresa Wiltz

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 62,000 public housing units around the country need lead abatement. And, according to the National Housing Law Project, more than 90,000 children in the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program have lead poisoning, and an additional 340,000 children living in federally subsidized housing are at risk.

New federal and state efforts are underway to tackle the problem. HUD recently awarded $27.8 million to 38 public housing agencies in 25 states to identify and reduce lead-based paint hazards in thousands of older public housing units. In 2018, it awarded $18 million to public housing authorities. Meanwhile, state and federal legislation is pending to tighten requirements and boost funding for remediation.

When lead was detected in this apartment, home to an 11-year-old boy and his family, the New York Housing Authority disputed the findings — along with 95 percent of all instances of lead reported in its housing between 2010 and 2018. Photo by Kholood Eid/The New York Times.

Bandage on a bullet wound?

The District of Columbia Housing Authority, which received a $1 million grant from HUD, estimates it will cost more than $3 million a year to clean up just one of its larger complexes. And the New York City Public Housing Authority (NYCHA), which is entangled in a controversy for its failure to remove lead and move hundreds of lead-poisoned kids from its units, estimates that it will cost $32 billion to make a variety of repairs, including eradicating the toxin. NYCHA did not receive a grant this year.

The HUD grants are "just barely a drop in the bucket for what needs to be done," says Nancy Loeb, director of the Environmental Advocacy Center at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. "It's really troubling that we have a pollutant that we know affects children for the rest of their lives and HUD is dragging their feet on this."

Late last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that HUD isn't doing enough to mitigate lead paint hazards in the more than four million low-income households living in federally subsidized housing. That includes public housing and private rentals using housing vouchers.

Another GAO report, released last year, found that HUD wasn't providing enough guidance to jurisdictions awarded lead abatement grants. The report also found HUD needed to improve the way it documents and evaluates the effectiveness of lead abatement programs it funds through grants.

Meanwhile, a 2018 report by the HUD Inspector General's office, the agency's internal watchdog, found that HUD failed to ensure that the nation's 3,300 public housing authorities properly identified and eliminated lead hazards, "thus increasing the potential of exposing children to lead poisoning due to unsafe living conditions."

But HUD officials note that public housing, including federally subsidized private units, have a lower prevalence of lead-based paint than private housing. In addition to the money for public housing, HUD awarded another $319 million to 77 state and local government agencies in late 2019 to clean up lead-based paint and other health and safety hazards in privately owned low-income housing.

And HUD spends more on lead abatement than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which awarded $17 million in grants to prevent lead poisoning between 2000 and 2010 but nothing since.

Still, public housing authorities say they're scrambling to keep up with their rapidly aging housing stock.

"We do not have sufficient resources to ensure that our public housing is safe and healthy for residents," says Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities.

Pending legislative efforts

In May, a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators introduced legislation to require HUD to update its lead-poisoning prevention measures to protect families living in federally subsidized housing.

And in November, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, introduced a proposal to earmark $180 billion over 10 years to make public housing safer. Their proposal would require the HUD secretary to report on changes to the overall community health in public housing, from asthma rates to air quality to levels of lead and mold.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers this year introduced more than 240 bills targeting lead abatement from a variety of angles, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The New York and New Jersey bills are among the handful that focus on public housing.

"This is becoming a public health crisis that will take a concerted effort," says Emily Benfer, director of the Health Justice Advocacy Clinic at Columbia Law School. "But the cornerstone of any intervention must be primary intervention, identifying hazards before individuals are exposed."

Teresa Wiltz is a staff writer for Stateline. This story was reprinted with permission from Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.