Press Release
July 12, 2022
Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing (CLASH) joins the EarthJustice, a national environmental justice law firm, in calling on Congress to pass the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act.
The Lead Safe Housing for Kids Act (LSHKA) would require owners of HUD assisted housing to test for lead hazards before children are poisoned.
LSHKA would cover public housing, privately owned assisted housing, and properties receiving housing choice vouchers where there is a child under 6 years of age.
While Cleveland’s Lead Safe Certificate Program currently covers privately owned assisted housing and properties receiving housing choice vouchers, roughly 10,000 units owned by Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority are not covered by Cleveland’s ordinance.
Outside of the City of Cleveland, LSHKA would extend new protections to tenants living in HUD assisted housing all around Ohio.
Proactively testing Federally assisted housing is not a new issue. For two decades, the Government Accountability Office has been issuing reports about the gap in HUD programming around the issue of lead paint. Three recent examples are:
- The Danger of Lead Paint Hazards in Two HUD Programs
- Lead Paint in Housing: Key Considerations for Adopting Stricter Lead Evaluation Methods in HUD’s Voucher Program and
- Lead Paint in Housing: HUD Has Not Identified High-Risk Project-Based Rental Assistance Properties
Darrick Wade, a founding member of CLASH says: “It is past time for HUD to adopt a primary prevention strategy for addressing lead in federally assisted housing. Preventing lead exposure is cheaper than fixing the problem after a child has been poisoned. Not only cheaper, but morally imperative.…” Darrick’s son Demetrius Wade died as a result of lead exposure at Cleveland’s Lakeview Terrace Estate.