I'Jaz Ja'Ciel | October 2, 2024

Erie County is expected to play a larger role in battling Buffalo’s lead poisoning crisis under a new state program that is pouring millions of dollars into health departments across much of New York State.

While the state program won’t be fully operational until late next year, Erie County has already been told it can expect an additional $1.9 million in each of the next five years.

The Erie County Department of Health plans to use the money to beef up its lead inspections unit, bringing on eight more inspectors as well as clerical staff to supplement its 18 existing public health sanitarians.

By coordinating with the City of Buffalo — which is in the process of expanding its own lead inspection team — and working closely with Section 8 housing providers, Erie County hopes as many as 12,000 rental housing units can be inspected annually for lead. That’s five times more than the county currently inspects annually and double the approximately 6,000 units the city of Buffalo has inspected for lead since its own program began in 2021. 

“We hope to partner with city of Buffalo and local Section 8 providers to reach this goal,” said Kara Kane, public information officer for the Erie County Department of Health.

The new state initiative, as first outlined by Gov. Kathy Hochul last year, will develop a statewide rental registry and proactive inspections program. 

State funding will allow Erie, along with 19 other counties and 25 municipalities to “proactively inspect rental units every three years to identify and mitigate lead paint hazards before children become exposed,” according to Erin Clary, public information officer for the state Department of Health.

The state program will cost $36 million a year, with $16 million going to county health departments where the 25 high-risk cities and towns are located. Another $20 million will be available as landlord assistance to aid in removing lead hazards from homes, Clary told Investigative Post via email.

The targeted municipalities have the largest number of homes built before 1980, which are properties most likely to still have lead-based paint in them. These municipalities also have the highest rates of child lead poisoning outside of New York City, according to data that county health departments report to the state. New York City is not included because, as a city of over 8 million, it is covered by its own program. 

The city of Buffalo accounted for three of the four ZIP codes in the state (outside of New York City) with the highest percent of children tested with elevated levels of lead in their blood, according to state health department data for 2020, the most recent year for which data is publicly available. In several Buffalo  ZIP codes, as many as 20 to 25 percent of children tested had elevated levels.

Those ZIP codes – 14211, 14212 and 14213 – include two on the city’s East Side, specifically, the Schiller Park and Broadway-Fillmore neighborhoods. The third is in the Grant Ferry neighborhood on the city’s West Side. Other Buffalo ZIP codes among the 10 worst in New York are 14208  and 14215 on the city’s East Side, one in the Kingsley/Masten neighborhood, the other on the Buffalo-Cheektowaga border.

“The city of Buffalo, like the other 24 communities of concern, has both a higher stock of older rental housing and higher prevalence of children with lead poisoning,” Clary said.

Buffalo program continues
The state program is modeled after Rochester’s lead-based paint poisoning prevention ordinance, which went into effect in 2005, and has succeeded in reducing lead levels in children there. A similar program launched in Buffalo in 2021 to great fanfare, but limited success.

Buffalo has been saying since the spring that it will be hiring seven additional inspectors for its Proactive Rental Inspections unit, whose staff  had dropped to three. The city has hired two of the seven new inspectors. Four others are expected to be hired by the end of October, said city Permits and Inspections Commissioner Catherine Amdur.

Amdur also said that while city inspectors coordinate and share information with the county, the new state program won’t replace Buffalo’s Proactive Rental Inspections program.

“The state program is a separate program with the county;  it is independent of the city program.  There are currently no plans to replace the city’s PRI program,” Amdur said.

Nonetheless, Amdur has maintained that Erie County bears the responsibility of lead testing in Buffalo because the county — unlike the city — has a health department, and because county lead programs are heavily funded by the state. The city program receives no state or federal funding, she said. 

Amdur repeated those sentiments in response to the new program.

“We’re glad to see the county is adding new inspectors since they are the agency responsible for lead poisoning prevention and they are funded by the state and federal government to do that work,” she said.

Black neighborhoods suffer 
With 60 percent of Buffalo’s housing stock built before World War II, approximately 450 children under the age of six in Buffalo are diagnosed every year with elevated blood lead levels, according to Partnership for the Public Good, one of several community groups suing the city for not fully complying with its existing rental inspections law. 

The organization also found that children living in predominantly Black neighborhoods are 12 times as likely to be poisoned by lead than children living in white neighborhoods.

Lead-poisoned children suffer neurological damage, learning disabilities, attention disorders, hearing and speech problems, decreased IQ and a decreased lifespan, according to the lawsuit, which also states there is no safe level of lead, and damage from lead poisoning is irreversible.

“New York State is making tremendous progress in removing lead from drinking water, construction materials and more, and yet peeling and chipping lead-based paint in older homes remains one of the largest sources of childhood lead exposure,” Clary said.

Landlord assistance key
In Western New York, Niagara and Chautauqua counties are also expected to get some state funding to address lead concerns. In addition, a small slice of Cheektowaga, on the Buffalo border, is included in Erie County’s program.

The state health department declined to disclose grant amounts to the county agencies included in the new program, as contracts are still being finalized. However, Kane told Investigative Post the state awarded the county $9.6 million, with a disbursement of $1.9 million annually over a five-year period.

The Erie County Department of Health approved acceptance of its first-year grant from the state this spring, and the county has already begun hiring to prepare for the implementation of the state’s program next November. 

“The grant term began in April, and we began to fill positions in June,” Kane said.

Some observers have praised the state’s efforts to address lead and to promote transparency by creating an online registry of properties to ensure that owners of rental properties are complying with laws.

“When it’s secret, when it’s behind the scenes, when it’s just filings with the state — and they often lose track — then it’s not as effective. The fact that it’s going to be public makes a world of difference,” said Tom Neltner, national director of Unleaded Kids, a group focused on reducing lead exposure to children throughout the nation.

Advocates also praised the state’s decision to provide financial assistance for repairs to remove lead hazards, with some saying it’s one of the most important components of the initiative. 

“Some of the landlords don’t have the money to remediate the houses, or they kind of just bought the house and walked into the situation, because lead has been in these houses for years,” said LEAD716 coordinator Breanna Hargrave.

LEAD716 is a free program based in Buffalo that works to minimize the negative effects of lead on children in Western New York.

Hargrave said she’s pleased that the state — and in turn, the county — will take more steps to address lead hazard, but she says it’s long overdue. 

“I appreciate what they’re doing, but I believe they could do more,” she said.