CLEVELAND — The current lead crisis in Cleveland is significantly worse than the height of the crisis in Flint, Michigan, according to the city’s public health director, Dr. Dave Margolius. 

What You Need To Know

  • On Monday, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb signed an executive order that mandates a more rigorous lead risk assessment be done before properties can get their certification

  • Over 90% of homes in Cleveland were built before lead paint was banned in 1978

  • Finding contractors to do assessment and remediation on homes has also been a struggle

“Hundreds of kids are being poisoned in Cleveland,” Margolius said in a public health committee meeting on Monday. “So, that’s why we’re here to talk about what we can do better.”

In 2019, city council passed legislation requiring landlords to certify rental properties as “lead safe,” but a recent report from the Department of Public Health suggests that certification may not be having an impact. 

On Monday, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb signed an executive order that mandates a more rigorous lead risk assessment be done before properties can get their certification, something Council member Rebecca Maurer has been asking for from the start. 

“I’ve been in support of those higher standards for a year,” Maurer said. “I’m in support of them now because a lead clearance is only supposed to be that final check mark after you’ve done work at just a point in time. The risk assessment is where you really understand where the risks are in the property.”

While the lower level clearance ensures there’s no lead risk in that moment, the risk assessment identifies areas where lead paint could eventually become a hazard.

The assessments will be made public, so residents living in rentals can follow remediation efforts in those properties. 

Margolius said there is no safe level of lead in a child’s blood, and the rate of lead poisoning in Cleveland is four times the national average.

Over 90% of homes in Cleveland were built before lead paint was banned in 1978, and most people are exposed at home. 

The Department of Public Health’s report shows rates of lead poisoning in the city declined between 2005 and 2019, but have remained stagnant since then. 

 It also found 11 cases of children who got lead poisoning from properties that the city deemed “lead safe.” 

“We’re asking for more targeted investment to renovate homes to keep them free of lead poisoning,” Margolius said. “And we’re asking for just a concerted effort across our community to demolish old homes that can poison children and build as many new homes as possible that are affordable to our residents in the city of Cleveland.”

But finding contractors to do assessment and remediation on homes has also been a struggle.

The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, a public-private partnership established in 2019, was granted nearly $100 million dollars from various entities to tackle the lead crisis. 

In the coalition’s first four years, they spent around $14 million. 

Vice president of Enterprise Community Partners, Ayonna Blue Donald, who works with the coalition, said they have struggled to get money out for a number of reasons: the pandemic, workforce shortages and material costs. 

“Everything has skyrocketed in the past couple of years,” Donald said. “We’ve seen just really challenges with the turnaround time that it takes to actually do the repairs on the property. The system is kind of stretched thin.”

Donald said the coalition is still working to make improvements, announcing that they have onboarded new administrators to administer grants and launching new programs for lead safe child care and screening and testing, but Maurer isn’t satisfied with the coalition’s response. 

“The dollars are not getting out the door, and we need to make sure that they are,” Maurer said. “So I heard from them, ‘Hey, we have problems with contractors. We have problems with a pipeline.’ Ok? We have we’ve had years to fix this. We haven’t fixed it yet. What are we doing next?”

While there were disagreements on how to approach this issue, everyone at the table agreed there is much more work to be done.

“Folks don’t see the negative consequences of lead poisoning until it’s much too late, and so we really need to get ahead of it,” Margolius said. “The rest of the country is moving on from this problem. And we don’t want Cleveland to fall behind. So we really need to take this seriously as a community and it’ll be a top priority for us.”

City leaders say there will be more meetings in the coming weeks to continue this work.