CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland, which is facing a lead-poisoning crisis, is also working through a backlog of 1200 applications from landlords seeking to certify their properties as “lead safe.”

After months of slow process, the advisory board responsible for monitoring lead-safe initiatives is still figuring out the best path forward.

“How do we pivot? How do we get to that next jump where we don’t have a thousand children in Cleveland every year who are poisoned by lead, and that we’re truly making these homes less safe? That is going to take more work, and so we need to change as well to really get there,” said Council member Rebecca Maurer, who chairs the Cleveland Lead Safe Advisory Board.

City council passed legislation requiring property owners to register rentals as “lead safe” in 2019, and then Mayor Justin Bibb increased the standards for that certificate in 2024. But the city’s slow speed at processing applications is preventing inspectors from getting out in the field to actually deem homes safe.  

In a Lead Safe Advisory Board meeting this week, Cleveland’s Director of the Department of Building and Housing, Sally Martin O’Toole, said she’s hopeful they will work through the backlog within the next three months and then start inspections.

In budget hearings earlier this month, council appeared to largely agree that the Department of Building and Housing needs more staff to work through the issue, but has different ideas of how to get there. 

Maurer said there are no drafts for new legislation on the table yet, but different groups, like the board or the Cleveland Lead Safe Coalition, are considering different options.

Local lead safety advocate Spencer Wells said he feels optimistic city leaders are working in earnest to tackle an issue that has impacted Clevelanders for generations.

“At a policy level, I think the fact that council is united around. We need to do this work. I think all the tools are in place to do it,” Wells said. “Just a matter of getting everybody on the same page.”