CLASH presses City Hall over stalled lead safety progress
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Members of the grassroots organization Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing (CLASH) are calling on Cleveland to make lead safety a priority after a spate of discouraging headlines in recent weeks.
Why it matters: Lead poisoning is "public enemy number one," CLASH reiterated Monday at a press conference at City Hall.
- Elevated blood lead levels in Cleveland children remain nearly four times the national average and can result in irreversible cognitive and behavioral damage.
Catch up quick: The city passed its landmark Lead Safe Housing Law in 2019, which required landlords of homes built before 1978 to obtain lead-safe certification.
- But progress has been slow — less than a third of the city's 90,000 rental units have been certified as of earlier this year.
- And funds to rehabilitate older homes have been mismanaged.
Driving the news: CLASH members assembled, they said, after Ohio clawed back $3.3 million of a $4.9 million state grant last month.
- Mayor Justin Bibb took the blame for the blunder, saying his administration created too much red tape and prevented money from getting out the door.
- "Sometimes we let the perfect be the enemy of the good," he said last month.
What they're saying: CLASH called on Cleveland to address the "egregious" issues related to funding, management, testing and certification.
- It wants City Council to audit all lead-related spending, including by federal stimulus fund grantees.
- And it supports a staffed lead resource center inside City Hall as a one-stop shop for lead questions.