Thomas Breen
City lead program manager Jennifer Sanjurjo.
The City Plan Commission voted to recommend that the city follow through on an application for $4.1 million in federal lead abatement funding, while the chair also cautioned that the city should seek out new sources of funding to confront the citywide problem of childhood lead poisoning.
The unanimous vote came during the most recent City Plan Commission meeting held Wednesday night on the second floor of City Hall. Commissioners voted unanimously to recommend that the Board of Alders approve the Health Department’s request to apply for a $4.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes (OLHCHH).
According to the Health Department’s narrative in this year’s city budget, the city has received six rounds of lead abatement funding from OLHCHH since 1995. That funding has allowed the city to provide nearly $9 million in 0 interest, forgivable loans to landlords to help them abate lead hazards in their properties.
On Wednesday night’s meeting, Jennifer Sanjurjo, the city’s program manager for the HUD lead abatement funds, spoke to the commissioners about the importance of the federal program.
She said the city’s current round of OLHCHH funding expires in November 2018, and the Health Department hopes to receive a new, three-and-a-half-year round of funding starting in October if its application is successful.
City Plan Chair Ed Mattison asked how the money will be used.
“It will go towards lead poison prevention,” Sanjurjo said. “It will go to outreach, salaries, fringe. Money out the door to homeowners to lead abate, and money out the door to help with healthy homes-related hazards.”
She said the $4.1 million request, if received, will be broken up by the city into two broad uses: $3.4 million for lead abatement loans, and $600,000 towards “healthy homes.”
She said the city hopes to abate 200 units across the three-and-a-half years with this new round of funding, if received.
“What’s the average cost to abate a unit?” Mattison asked.
Sanjurjo said during the current round of OLHCHH funding, an average unit has cost around $7,600 to abate.
“I think this is an important activity that our Health Department engages in,” Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand said in support of the city’s request to apply for federal funds. “This is an important source of funds to support this function of our city government. I think we should approve it.”
City Plan Chair Ed Mattison.
“I certainly agree with you that we should approve it,” Mattison said, “but it just seems like its not proportionate to the need.”
He said there are hundreds if not thousands of dwelling units in New Haven that need to be abated of lead paint hazards. He said when he worked for New Haven Legal Aid in the 1970s and 1980s, nearly every building he worked in had some problem with child lead poisoning.
“I think the city has to find a way to not just rely on the pittances we get from the feds,” he said, “but find some other way to pay for it. Because this is a big huge problem.”
Sanjurjo said she agreed that lead poisoning is still a problem throughout the city. But, she said, the OLHCHH funding has helped the city fund the lead abatement of over 1,400 units since 1995. “Imagine if we didn’t have any funding at all,” she said.
After the meeting, this reporter asked Sanjurjo if she could clarify what she meant by the term “healthy homes,” which she said would receive $600,000 in grant money if the city’s application is successful.
“I was told I can’t talk to” the press, she said as she left the meeting. “Sorry.”
The OLHCHH website defines “healthy homes” as homes that are kept dry, clean, safe, well-ventilated, pest-free, contaminant-free, well-maintained and thermally-controlled, so as to reduce risk of both lead and non-lead related health hazards for children.
The city’s Health Department has recently been at the center of a number of ongoing court cases related to the timeliness and thoroughness of the lead inspections, lead abatement plans, and post-abatement inspections.
Previous coverage:
• 3 Landlords Hit With New Lead Orders
• Another Judge Rips City On Lead
• Judge To City: Get Moving On Lead
• Health Department Seeks Another $4.1M For Lead Abatement
• City-OK’d Lead Fixes Fail Independent Inspection
• Judge: City Dragged Feet On Lead
• 2nd Kid Poisoned After City Ordered Repairs
• Judge: City Must Pay
• City Sued Over Handling Of Lead Poisonings
• City’s Lead Inspection Goes On Trial
• Eviction Withdrawn On Technicality
• 2nd Child Poisoned; Where’s The City?
• Carpenter With Poisoned Kid Tries A Fix
• High Lead Levels Stall Eviction
• 460 Kids Poisoned By Lead In 2 Years
• Bid-Rigging Claimed In Lead Cleanup
• Judge Orders Total Lead Paint Clean-Up
• Legal Aid Takes City To Task On Lead