City Housing Authority workers have for years performed lead paint inspections and cleanups without the proper training required by the federal government, a Daily News investigation has found.
As a result, tenants may have been exposed to lead in apartments that had been deemed “clean.” Some apartments may have been made worse by workers inadvertently spreading lead paint dust during cleanup.
One of the affected tenants appears to be Sherron Paige, who in 2012 moved into Apartment 5A of 791 Hicks St. in the Red Hook Houses development in Brooklyn.
Apartment 5A was one of the apartments that NYCHA had designated as “clean.” When the prior tenant had moved out, NYCHA had someone inspect it and then remediate it, authority lawyers said Thursday.
Paige’s son, Kyan Dickerson, was born in July 2013. When he turned 4, he got a physical to begin attending pre-K. A test registered a level of 12 micrograms per deciliter of lead in his blood. The acceptable level is 5.
Soon after when city health inspectors arrived, they did an X-ray test that found lead paint. NYCHA did its own test — and said there was no lead. DOH then tested dust in the apartment and again found lead.
Lead paint is harmless when left on the wall but once it chips, flakes or turns into dust, it can cause developmental delays in children if it’s ingested or inhaled.
Kyan — who has never lived anyplace other than Apartment 5A — has been diagnosed with delays in speech and was recently given a special education designation by the schools department.
To prevent scenarios like this, the federal government — which provides NYCHA with most of its funding — has for years required that workers assigned to inspect for and remove lead paint must have specific training and certifications proving they know what they’re doing.
On Thursday in response to The News’ questions, NYCHA for the first time admitted that untrained workers have been completing these inspections and cleanups for years, raising serious questions about the authority’s claims to be on top of the situation.
A source familiar with the inspection protocols of NYCHA said the results found in these inspections “may not be accurate or reliable and therefore the knowledge of the extent of the problem is questionable.”
NYCHA confirmed that until 2016, none of the NYCHA workers assigned to do lead paint inspections had Lead-Based Paint Visual Assessment certificates, which the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) requires.
And until August, none of the NYCHA workers tasked with lead paint cleanup had the required Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Lead Renovator Certification.
The source noted that botched lead paint remediation by untrained workers can actually make things worse.
“Improper lead based paint corrections cause lead dust to be created and will actually create a more dangerous environment and create more opportunity and hazard for children under 6 because the dust will settle on toys, eating utensils, food, or any exposed surfaces which will allow a child to ingest the dust and thereby lead can be introduced into their system,” the source said.
The source also said an unknown number of tenants were allowed to move into apartments presumed to contain lead paint without NYCHA doing the required inspection and cleanup first. The source attributed this to a communication breakdown in which development managers neglected to inform the technical services unit that handles lead paint inspections that the apartment was now ready to be checked.
And the source also noted that once a lead paint hazard is red-flagged in an apartment, NYCHA is required to fix the problem within 90 days. But NYCHA has never enforced the 90-day rule and at times NYCHA took many more months to return to a lead paint apartment to complete the required remediation.
The source said that NYCHA never tracked or even directed staff to make corrections within the required 90-day timeframe previously.
This lack of training dates back years, but continued well into the de Blasio tenure at City Hall. NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake, in response to News questions, said the authority is now following all the training requirements.
“This was part of NYCHA’s efforts to correct and improve all its practices related to lead inspections and abatement,” she said. “We are working hard to fix systems that hadn’t changed in nearly a decade. Our residents deserve better.”
NYCHA has an estimated 55,000 apartments with presumed lead paint that must be inspected every year. That includes about 4,700 units with children under six.
A recent report by the Department of Investigation found that the authority only began annual inspections of the units with children for the first time last year, and has yet to check the rest of the 55,000.
Nevertheless, DOI found, NYCHA falsely claimed to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) that it was in compliance with all required inspections from at least 2012 through 2016.
De Blasio had known of this non-compliance for more than a year but didn’t talk about it until after DOI’s report was released. He then called it “unacceptable.”
Responding to DOI’s report, de Blasio sought to downplay its significance to the authority’s 400,000 tenants.
“It’s important to recognize as troubling as this story is, that when you dig in to the facts, thank God there is less here than appears,” he said on Nov. 20. “Thank God there has not been harm done to any child because of the mistakes that were made.”
Contrary to the mayor’s claim, the News has reported on several cases of small children with high blood-lead levels living in NYCHA apartments with lead paint. All these children — including Kyan Dickerson — were diagnosed with developmental delays.
And between 2010 and 2015, there have been 202 children who’ve lived in 133 NYCHA units who’ve registered elevated blood-lead levels. In nearly half of those apartments (63), city health inspectors detected the presence of lead paint.
NYCHA did their own tests and claimed only 17 of those apartments had a lead paint hazard. But the lack of training and certification for the people doing these inspections and cleanup raises serious questions about NYCHA’s claims regarding the scope of the problem.
Back in March 2016, Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents 8,000 NYCHA workers, asked NYCHA about its lead paint protocols when it emerged that the Manhattan U.S. Attorney was looking into the issue.
He’d asked NYCHA to identify the location of lead paint and have workers tested for exposure. On Friday, he said he was unaware that workers in the tech services department had been inspecting and cleaning up apartments without the required training.
“We know that the elevator mechanics have to be licensed, the maintenance workers, everybody has to have proper certification,” he said. “We’re surprised that this was allowed to happen. That’s something that Mayor de Blasio should have straigtheend out.”
It’s not known if this lack of certification is the subject of ongoing investigations by both city Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters and acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim.
On Friday a spokeswoman for DOI would only say the investigation is ongoing, while the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney declined comment.
