Enforce Lead Safe Certificate Law

Here's what's in the News

• Sep 18, 2023. City Hall Press Release. Residents First housing reform agenda aims to protect Clevelanders. "Robust new legislation outlining Mayor Bibb’s housing reform agenda with a package of ordinance overhauls aimed at protecting renters, dealing with vacant properties and revamping housing enforcement efforts will be introduced at tonight’s Cleveland City Council meeting.  [  ] Code enforcement changes outlined in Residents First establish new legal authority for inspectors to issue civil tickets for nuisances. This new code enforcement tool allows for the issuance of a $200 fine per infraction for violations including garbage disposal, lead-safe requirements, pest infestation, exterior maintenance, graffiti removal, sanitation and other areas covered by the city’s building and housing, zoning, fire and health codes."

  1. • Explainer #2: The Residents First legislation "appears" (CLASH hasn't seen the language of the proposal) to address the failure of landlords of pre-1978 properties to comply with the Lead Safe Certificate program passed in 2019 (in response to CLASH's petition campaign.) Both are welcome developments...but the devils are in the details. City officials have been promising action against non-filers for years.

• JUNE 29, 2023. TheLand. 1400 miles, on foot. How Cleveland surveyed 162,000 properties in 6 months. "The StoryMap uses categories such as vacant lots, dumping, lead hazards, and out-of-state ownership to focus on the larger issues in the public consciousness and at city hall. 'We believe this will allow us to identify areas across the city that are most in need and then work from there,' said Ward 10’s Councilman Anthony Hairston at a June 16 press conference.The survey will help pinpoint specific data that will ultimately lead to a better city,' he added, alluding to hot-button Cleveland issues like lead paint abatement and vacancy demolitions." And then a funny omission: "To Isaac Robb, WRLC’s VP of planning and urban projects, knowing the condition of the 100,000 occupied structures in the city is an opportunity to make Cleveland healthier by prioritizing lead paint abatement in deteriorating homes. The data will help projects like the , which received $17 million of the city’s federal ARPA money, know where to distribute personnel and equipment." Like the , What? More here.

• Jan. 30, 2023. Cleveland.com. Four out of five rentals have yet to comply as Cleveland’s lead-safe law enters the next chapter. "Based on the numbers available, full compliance appears to be years, if not a decade or more, away, unless the pace of certifications picks up. Over the first three-quarters of 2022, the city received an average of 1,000 applications every three months. 'To reach a 7‐year goal of compliance (by 2028), the volume of…applications would need to reach approximately 2,500,' the auditor’s September report states." If you've been following the issue of enforcement, you may recall that a Mayoral effort to move ARPA funds to the Law Department for enforcement was challenged by LSCC supporters in Council. 

• October 25, 2022. Cleveland.com. Compromise saves Cleveland’s $17 million lead safety law: Stimulus Watch. The headline is misleading, City Council reprogrammed some funds to the City Law Department to begin enforcement of years-old violations on houses which have already poisoned children. A step in the right direction after a decade of neglect.

• October 28, 2022. Ideastream. Cleveland inspectors will survey 170,000 properties for lead contamination. Again the headline is confusing. Actually Building and Housing is trying to find what rental properties are not on the register and...while they are on the sidewalk, looking at the unregistered properties, they are checking for exterior violations. No testing, no fines, no naming and shaming. Another step in the right direction.

Here are some recommendations to improve enforcement of the Lead Safe Certificate Program

• Housing Court. Impose no re-rent orders on properties where landlords are evicting tenants, but flouting the duty to certify their properties are lead safe.

• Departments of Building and Housing, Public Health, and Law Departments to create a protocol for bringing non compliant owners to Court.

• Develop civil receivership procedures for nuisance properties with lead violations in order to expedite rehabilitation or demolition. 

• Departments of Building and Housing, Public Health, Law, and the Housing Court should set up a system for handling tenant complaints related to lead poisoning. 

• Provide emergency relocation assistance for tenants displaced by enforcement actions.