Cleveland Lead Safe Network

Crystal M.C. Davis is being honored with a Great Lakes Protection Fund Leadership Award.

A proposed ordinance would set a timetable for lead inspections and cleanup in all Cleveland rental units built before 1978. Every rental unit in the city would have to be inspected beginning March 1, 2021, under newly introduced Under Ord. 747-2019, and all units would have to be certified as lead safe by 2023. Violations would carry civil and criminal penalties. Councilman Blaine Griffin co-sponsored the legislation, along with Council President Kevin Kelley and Councilman Kerry McCormack.

A list of 33 recommendations for dealing with Cleveland’s ongoing lead crisis, presented to the city council Monday by experts and activists, did not include a way to pay for inspections and fixes to lead contaminated housing. Councilman Blaine Griffin, chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, hinted the funding could come from a new tax or foundation support or another source.

In Governor Mike DeWine’s first budget due later this week, he plans to allocate $10 million to the State Child Health Insurance Program for lead cleanup projects, the same amount as in the previous budget. He’ll also call for a $10,000 tax credit to homeowners for lead abatement projects. DeWine laid out the new measures to address lead contamination in Ohio during a visit to University Hospital’s Rainbow Center for Women and Children Wednesday.

Cleveland will announce a goal on Tuesday to bring down the rate of childhood lead poisoning and make the city “lead safe” by 2028, Council President Kevin Kelley said in an interview Monday afternoon. By 2028, Kelley said, the city aims for no children to register blood-lead levels above five micrograms per deciliter, which experts have considered a threshold for poisoning. He called the 10-year goal “aggressive but reasonable,” saying that the specific details of the city’s plan are still being worked out.