Investigators have found that NYCHA falsely certified that it inspected thousands of apartments for toxic lead paint that it hadn’t actually inspected, the Daily News has learned.
The revelation surfaced during a wide-ranging probe by Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, whose office is examining conditions at NYCHA’s 320 developments.
That investigation has zeroed in on the Housing Authority’s claims to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that it had completed mandatory annual inspections of all apartments suspected of containing lead paint hazards.
But investigators discovered that from 2012 through 2014, NYCHA only made the inspections of these apartments every other year, officials revealed.
In response to questions by the Daily News, the city Department of Investigation said Wednesday, “NYCHA has acknowledged to DOI that between 2012 to 2014, due to an initiative to reduce NYCHA’s backlog of open work orders, NYCHA shifted from inspecting apartments every year to once every two years.”
DOI added, “Consequently, NYCHA fell out of compliance with federal and local regulations. Our investigation found additional concerns with this issue that we have discussed with NYCHA and will make public when the investigation is completed.”
New York City Housing Authority spokeswoman Ilana Maier said only that NYCHA “identified certain gaps in compliance with lead-based paint rules.”
At a Wednesday board meeting, NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye confirmed for the first time that NYCHA is not in compliance and acknowledged that the agency has launched an “expensive and important” effort to fix the problem, focusing on inspection and remediation protocols.
She estimated the fixup — which she described as “radical” — will cost the financially troubled agency millions of dollars.
“Our continued cooperation with the (U.S. attorney’s office) has led us to review our compliance functions with regard to lead-based paint requirements,” Olatoye said. “Our conclusion is that we have not been compliant with certain aspects of the lead-based paint certification and that is just simply not acceptable.”
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A HUD spokesman declined to comment, citing the pending investigation.
There have been 202 children living in 133 NYCHA apartments who’ve tested positive for lead poisoning since 2010. NYCHA believes there are now 4,702 apartments likely containing lead paint with children younger than 6 — those most vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning.
In 2015, NYCHA tenant Helen Jackson’s 2-year-old daughter tested positive for high levels of lead. A city Health Department test registered high levels of lead in the apartment’s paint, but NYCHA’s lab tests ruled the levels weren’t a hazard.
High levels of lead in the blood of small children can have a negative impact on their intellectual abilities, researchers have found. Lead was banned from most buildings in the 1970s, but most of NYCHA’s buildings were built before that.
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and interviewed multiple NYCHA employees in a probe of the agency that dates to October 2015.
NYCHA spokeswoman Maier said Health Department statistics show lead poisoning in the city “is at historic lows and children living in public housing are less likely to be exposed to lead than those living in private housing.”
NYCHA, she noted, is now completing inspections of apartments with young children, adding, “NYCHA is actively taking steps to bring the authority into compliance. We can and must do better.”
