CLEVELAND — Is Cleveland moving fast enough to tackle its lead paint problem?
"I think there’s a 'who is the captain of the ship?' problem," Councilperson Rebecca Maurer said during a Lead Advisory Board meeting Thursday. "We’ve created this complex ecosystem. There's public partners, private partners. Then there's bodies overseeing different sections. That was one of the great things we celebrated at the creation of this law — was the public-private limitations. But it has limitations because we're not talking to everyone all the time."
Bureaucracy surrounding Cleveland's lead problem has entered the spotlight as many have expressed frustration over the lack of progress made in the city.
"We have in abundance $100 million [that] has been dedicated to this and all we have to do is go in and fix some walls replace some windows start cleaning houses and that's what prevents kids from getting lead poisoned," Councilperson Kris Harsh said last month during a finance meeting.
"It is not yet working and we have to fix this problem," Councilperson Maurer added in that same meeting. "It is offensive to me and continues to be offensive to me that we have millions of dollars dedicated to improving our housing stock and they are sitting in a bank account at Key Tower rather than out in the streets fixing our homes."
The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition received pledges of $100 million from the Cleveland Clinic, the city of Cleveland, and other major donors when it formed in 2019.
"That’s a tremendous sum of money that can do a lot of good," Sally Martin O'Toole, director of building and housing at the City of Cleveland, told News 5. "It’s being deployed but not quickly enough for anyone's taste."
Separate from the $100 million endeavor, Cleveland City Hall currently enforces that all registered rental units receive "Lead Safe" certifications, as part of a city ordinance that went into effect in 2021. Its goal is to improve housing quality, protect tenants and make it easier for the city to track down and punish bad actors.
Additionally, Mayor Justin Bibb signed an executive order last year to accelerate progress in reducing lead poisoning across the city by shifting focus from temporary lead-safety measures to long-term abatement.
A Cleveland Public Health report from last October pointed out that one out of every five children continue to have hazardous levels of lead in their blood. Nearly 90% of the city’s homes were built before 1978, the year lead-based paints were banned for residential use.
For landlord and lead risk assessor Joe Libretti, acquiring any of that money has proved difficult.
"It’s a fight to just get on the list," he said. "I’m trying to get four or five new doors on the house and it’s been impossible."
Just last month, News 5 reported on how the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, which distributes the funding to fix this problem, is spending $1 million trying to ramp up blood testing for lead.
RELATED: Coalition spending $1 million on lead testing in Cleveland amid declining rates
It comes as data shows the number of children getting tested is dropping.
"I think everybody knew the testing rates would decrease at that point in time because of the pandemic but they have not rebounded," Ayonna Blue Donald, steering committee member for the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, said earlier this year. "They have gone in a negative trend."
As News 5 reported last year, 11 children tested positive for lead in properties that the city had already deemed lead safe:
RELATED: 1,500 kids in Cleveland are being poisoned a year, some in 'lead safe' homes
O'Toole admits they’re dealing with a backlog of about 1,200 Lead Safe applications.
"The reason for that is an upsurge in applications, which is a great problem to have," she said. "People are attempting to comply."
Libretti told News 5 he's seen a shift happening lately with a lot of other landlords he talks to.
"I have to admit – for the first few years, a lot of landlords just ignored it," he said.
O'Toole told News 5 they're seeing about 40% compliance among rental units in the city.
However, Libretti argues the ordinance shouldn't be limited to just rentals.
"Why are we repeatedly testing rental homes where a 50 year old man lives and no children ever visit but we aren’t testing owner occupied homes where young children live," Libretti asked.
For Libretti, the focus needs to be finally mobilizing and targeting where this problem hurts the most: children.
"Everyone’s heart is in the right place," Libretti said. "No one wants to see a child lead poisoned. It’s just really hard cause I think we don’t have enough manpower assigned to making these improvements."
