City Pumps Lead Poisoning Prevention

Press conferences at restaurants. Press conferences in front of empty homes. Press conferences in bars. The mayor sure has plenty of time for press conferences. What I still don't see are any press conferences in front of our schools detailing how the city (the mayor) and our BOE will abate school violence and riots in our schools, increase teacher recruitment and retainment, and improve literacy. Disappointing and disgraceful.

When it needs to get done , Rafael Ramos is the man to do it ! Nice Job New Haven !

Tom, I believe the funding is up to $15,000 per unit, not per property. Your first sentence suggests the latter.

DarnellG, lead paint exposure causes all sorts of harms, including decreased literacy

[Reporter's note: Thank you so much for the correction, Kevin! You're right the $15,000 is per unit, not property. Just fixed the article. Thank you again!]

This is an absurd and ill thought out policy. Elicker is a Pollyanna digging us all a starry eyed grave.

Some key points that the city is not discussing:

• The state lead level is 20 mg, 5mg is miniscule
  
• The city will come into your home and NOT help you with lead, but mandate that you replace what they deem fit
  
• The aid is available to families below AMI, so there is no aid unless you can't afford to do the work anyway
  
• The "idea" is to punish landlords but in reality homeowners will be forced to clean up years of others mess
  
• The New Haven Health Department will not respond to you in email, phone or in person because they are an inept agency, like most in New Haven.
  
• The city does not have the resources or organization to fulfill this initiative but will bog down your life
  
• You will need a lawyer.
  
  How do I know this? My son had a level of 5 mg. The city came in to "help". They ignored their own protocols. They did not help identify where my son was exposed but elected to tell me that my encapsulated windows need to be replaced - about $60k of work. The city refuses to communicate with me or my family. All signs point to the city pursuing my family to cover their legal behinds when going after landlords. This policy will prove to be short lived but in the interim be very aware.

It's insane that the city promotes this as a positive. It is an outrageous pendulum swing from the gross neglect of Harp that is being poorly handled.

What the dashboard fails to show is the neighborhoods where the action is taking place and who is being targeted.

Read the script: 80% of households have lead, an exposure level four times less than the state level has been adopted for the city to come into your home and FORCE YOU to replace what exists. This may seem like it's in your best interest until you're emptying your savings account to replace a board your kid can't reached because one hundred years ago someone painted it with lead paint. New Haven is off the rails with good intentions but no understanding of the effects. Elicker is too smug to be ashamed of his ill thought out behavior and we will pay for it.

Now the city needs to pump some time into negotiating fair contracts with its employees, who have been working without one for 2+ years.

Elicker will never get re-elected as Mayor. He's as phony as a $3 bill and people in New Haven see through the BS.

The good news if you can call it that is the action level is dropping from 5 to 3. There is no science to support that those levels are harmful. If you go onto the CDC website they will tell you that they arrived at those levels statistically. These levels were derived from blood lead levels exhibited by the vast majority of kids under 6 in the U.S. without lead poisoning. This effort in New Haven is doomed to failure. The HUD money available requires substantial hurdles insofar as financial statements, bringing other deficiencies up to code, and the general city bureaucracy. Before you even get close to the money you are already in violation of the State regulations for exceeding the time period to remedy the lead. The smarter solution would have been a set of pre-approved lead inspection companies and lead abatement companies that the city would use to step in and handle the house from start to finish if you chose to participate in the HUD program. The constant use of the same set of companies would overtime streamline the operation by identifying deficiencies and be more efficient.

So wonderful and inspiring to see Rafael Ramos reinvent himself. A dedicated public servant!