The NYCHA was embarrassed recently when it was discovered that it failed to inspect thousands of public housing apartments for lead paint.
In response, the NYCHA has started a frantic campaign to enter residences for inspection, even if that means breaking in.
Last Tuesday, tenants across the city with children under 6 years old in apartments with presumed lead paint got a notice that inspections would take place the following Monday.
The notice came after the city Department of Investigation revealed that for years, NYCHA was violating local law and federal regulations by failing to perform required lead paint checks.
At Pomonok Houses in Fresh Meadows, Queens, tenants were told if they weren’t home between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Monday, NYCHA would “exercise the right to enter” anyway, removing and replacing door locks. “We need to complete this inspection quickly,” the notice stated.
After it was revealed that the NYCHA had failed to inspect the houses based on local and federal regulations, two senior managers were forced out and a third was demoted in a top-level shakeup to fix the lead paint inspection program.
Monica Corbett, president of Pomonok’s tenant association, is familiar with the mistakes and shortcomings of the NYCHA. Four years ago her son, Carver, then 4, registered a high level of lead in his blood. At the time, NYCHA had not inspected her apartment for lead, although it was aware there was lead paint throughout Pomonok’s 35 buildings.
That’s because although NYCHA was failing to inspect all apartments with presumed lead paint annually as required, it does test apartments when a tenant moves out. From 2013 through 2015, NYCHA found lead paint in 20 Pomonok apartments, including one a floor below Corbett’s in September 2013.
Shortly after his elevated blood-lead level was detected, Carver was designated by the city school system for a special education program, his mother said.
“It concerned me,” she said. “He wasn’t slow but he wasn’t hitting the milestones other kids had hit.”
Corbett is rightfully concerned that NYCHA’s new efforts to address this problem are still flawed.
Federal regulations require that NYCHA inspect all 55,000 apartments with presumed lead paint. But NYCHA will only be checking Pomonok apartments when children under 6 are listed as tenants.
That’s just 190 of Pomonok's 2,071 units. Corbett noted that NYCHA will not inspect apartments where young children spend days with grandparents while their parents are at work. Further, she says the authority is using 2016 data to target apartments, which doesn’t include tenants who’ve had babies since Dec. 31, 2016.
“There’s a whole number of people who aren’t being served,” Corbett said. “They’re being very selective. And maybe there’s that apartment where they just had a baby but they will not test it.”
Obviously, the NYCHA has failed to uphold lead paint inspection standards and hopefully this embarrassment will lead to stricter policies and enforcement.