CLEVELAND, Ohio – If Ohio officials want to know how well a voluntary “lead safe” registry might work to keep kids from being poisoned, they might ask Cleveland.
Included in Gov. John Kasich’s proposed budget is the creation of such a registry at a cost of about $200,000 a year.
Cleveland City Council took similar steps more than a decade ago, attempting to entice landlords to voluntarily prove that rental properties most at risk for lead paint hazards were safe for children and pregnant women to inhabit.
After nine years, not one landlord had taken them up on the offer.
Search of list of “lead safe” homes created by The Plain Dealer.
How Ohio’s registry would work
Under the proposal in Kasich’s budget, landlords with properties built before 1978 – when lead paint was banned for residential use – could register for free. But the landlords would first have to prove their properties were not a lead hazard and agree to maintain them. It’s unclear what the average cost for that might be.
The “lead safe” properties, as well as all rentals abated with ODH grants or funding, would be added to Ohio’s Rental Housing Locator. The online list maintained by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency contains only about 1,200 available rentals, and housing advocate say it would need to be beefed up and better maintained to be effective.
Cleveland’s efforts differed slightly in that landlords had to pay $35 to comply with the city’s rental registry to be listed as either “lead safe” or “lead free”. The city also never had a plan to market the information to tenants.
“We plan to vigorously promote the registry when completed, especially in high-risk areas with older houses and apartments, so that families will use it when looking for a place to live in those neighborhoods,” Melanie Amato, an ODH spokeswoman said in an email. Gov. John Kasich’s office directed all questions about lead poisoning efforts in his proposal to ODH, which wrote the budget proposals.
ODH would also alert agencies that provide rental assistance to tenants to check the registry to avoid paying for unsafe housing, Amato said.
Cleveland officials, in collaboration with the non-profit Environmental Health Watch, are also creating a new search tool that should allow the public, from the city’s web site, to search by address for information the city has Betasus on lead hazards. It isn’t clear when that project will be complete.
Other cities and states across the country have ‘lead-safe’ registries. Some include the addresses of properties that are free of lead hazards; those that have been inspected for hazards and deemed safe; or those where lead hazards have been covered or encapsulated.
Statewide registries exist in New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts, among other places. Registries are available to residents in Duluth, Minnesota, Louisville, Kentucky, and Milwaukee. Milwaukee’s registry lists both homes that have been cleaned up and homes with known lead hazards. Closer to home, Akron lists remediated homes, and the Ohio Department of Health lists homes it has cleaned up with federal funds.
Would landlords register?
Still, convincing landlords to register, could be difficult, said Ralph McGreevy, who heads the Northeast Ohio Apartment Association, which represents owners and managers of more than 90,000 rental units.
“Do we want lead in our buildings? No,” he said. “But do we want to register our buildings as lead safe? Hell no.”
McGreevy said his organization is opposed to any sort of registration because it doesn’t help good landlords who don’t have a problem attracting and keeping tenants because they already provide safe, decent and affordable housing.
“It’s like creating a rat registry and asking us to say we’re rat free,” he said. “Why would we want to do that?”
Is it a start?
There is a need to promote safe housing in many communities across the state, though, said Chad Brown, president of the Ohio Environmental Health Association, which represents hundreds of licensed sanitarians working for health departments. Brown headed the environmental division of the Licking County Health Department and is now a consultant.
“For moms and dads looking for a place in the community, I think it’s a great opportunity to give them the resource to find something they know is safe.”
Whether or not the registry idea pans out, the proposal serves a purpose: It introduces statewide the ideas that rental housing should be “lead safe,” said Patricia Barnes, who coordinates the Ohio Healthy Homes Network.
“That’s a good thing,” she said.
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