Cleveland gets $5 million to abate lead paint as part of broader fight against lead contamination

December 16, 2021

WASHINGTON, D. C. - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday announced that it’s awarding Cleveland a $5 million grant to be used for identifying and cleaning up lead paint in 240 low income families’ homes, as well as a $700,000 grant to help abate other hazards in 175 homes.

The Cleveland grant was announced as part of a broader Biden administration “Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan” unveiled on Thursday to reduce nationwide lead exposure that can cause brain damage, anemia, weakness and kidney damage. It includes more than 14 new actions across 10 federal agencies with the goal of replacing all lead pipes in the next decade.

A Cleveland Plain Dealer investigation found thousands of Cleveland children suffer from lead poisoning each year. Symptoms of childhood lead poisoning include learning and developmental troubles, irritability, loss of appetite, weight loss, sluggishness and fatigue, vomiting, constipation, hearing loss and seizures. Severe cases can be fatal.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, more than half of children in the U.S. are at risk of lead exposure – often in their own home. The federal government estimates to 10 million American households and 400,000 schools and child care centers are served by a lead service line or pipes and other fixtures. Approximately 24 million housing units have significant lead-based paint hazards, of which 4 million of these are home to young children.

The effort announced Thursday includes a new Environmental Protection Agency regulatory process to protect communities from lead in drinking water, and allocation of EPA allocating $3 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to states, Tribes, and Territories for lead service line replacement in 2022, while calling on states to prioritize underserved communities. It establishes a new Cabinet Level Partnership for Lead Remediation in Schools and Child Care Centers, and clarifies that money in the $350 billion State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund provided in the American Rescue Plan can be used for lead service line and lead faucet and fixture replacements.

A statement from the League of Conservation Voters applauded the effort to reduce lead exposure within a decade, predicting it would “make historic progress in removing toxic lead from our lives once and for all,” while the Natural Resources Defense Council said it did not go far enough because it would implement a Trump-administration rule that has a decades-long timeline for removing lead pipes and fixing the lead problem in school water. The EPA says it intends to speed up that timeframe.

“The EPA’s promise to take aggressive action to address lead-contaminated water and strengthen its rules are appreciated, but good intentions won’t be enough to get the job done,” said a statement from NRDC’s Erik D. Olson. “The top priority must be to require removal of all lead pipes within the decade and to set a strict at-the-tap standard, which is the only way to prevent another generation of kids from drinking water through what is essentially a lead straw.”

A statement from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge said that money it’s awarding to Cleveland and two other cities through its Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Grant Programs “are critical for communities to mitigate the impacts of unhealthy housing, preserve affordable housing, and ensure that future generations can reach their full potential.”

“These grants will enable families to live in homes that are healthier as a result of our, and their city governments’ efforts,” continued Fudge, a former Northeast Ohio member of Congress who served as Warrensville Heights mayor.

Fudge met with Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic in October to discuss the nation’s lead poisoning crisis and to raise awareness of the harmful and long-term effects of lead exposure to children, particularly the disproportional prevalence of elevated blood levels of lead in underserved and communities of color.

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