Cyber security issues that shut down the City of Cleveland operations this week also hampered efforts to ensure all residential rental properties are lead-safe.
A 2019 city law requires landlords who don’t reside in their residential properties to register each unit with the city. A recently launched online portal, which aims to make the process easier, is not operating partly due to the cyber incident.
Online registrations were beginning to flood into the system when the portal went live last week, said Sally Martin, Cleveland's director of building and housing, at a lead-safe advisory board meeting Thursday. The online portal is currently not operating, she said.
Martin said the online application process for residential property owners to apply for lead certification has also been delayed due to challenges the city is experiencing with the software.
"My hope was [to have the online application form ready] towards the end of this month," Martin said. "I'm hoping that we can still do that. But a lot of unforeseens have been happening."
Currently, landlords must email or mail their applications to the city. The board has sought feedback from residential property owners and landlords to make the process of becoming certified easier.
The board also heard findings that many Cleveland landlords who passed the certification requirement are failing to recertify at the two-year mark, as they are required to.
An analysis of city data presented at the lead-safe advisory board meeting Thursday showed only 18% of landlords with two-year certifications applied for recertifications.
Case Western Reserve University researcher Rob Fischer, an independent auditor for the city’s board, said the results do not bode well for continuing compliance efforts.
“I don't think it's fair to say they are totally concerning properties because obviously they met a standard previously, but obviously we want to get them back in the fold," he said.
Still, comparatively, Cleveland is outpacing lead safety compliance efforts in Detroit and Rhode Island, which have similar programs and have been running longer, Fischer said.
