A few dozen people attend an NYCLU rally for Lead-Free Syracuse at Wilson Park on Saturday, Sept. 17. Photo by Mike Greenlar | Central Current.

Residents at two properties owned and managed by the Syracuse Housing Authority did not receive proper notice of the presence of lead poisoning hazards in their apartments, a recent audit performed by the U.S. Office of Environmental Protection found. 

The EPA inspection also found SHA hired contractors to do remediation work who are not certified under the agency’s repair, renovation, and painting rules.

The two properties targeted in the report, released Thursday, are the James Geddes row house complex and Pioneer Homes. Both complexes are situated in historically impoverished areas and have been the focus of heavy public health advocacy due to subpar housing conditions. City code enforcement records show both properties have 20 open code violations respectively, including several instances of chipping and deteriorating paint on apartment walls, windows, and doors.

SHA was found to have violated federal real estate disclosure laws requiring landlords or brokers to highlight areas and surfaces that could pose a lead poisoning hazard for residents, as well as include a “lead warning statement” as part of the lease. Owners of complexes like James Geddes and Pioneer Homes are also required to provide records and reports of potential lead poisoning sources at common areas and other public spaces. The report indicates SHA, which owns and manages the city’s public housing portfolio, failed to produce these documents to tenants.

“Notification of potential and actual lead hazards by landlords to tenants is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce dangerous lead exposure,” EPA Regional Administrator Lisa Garcia said in a statement. “Tenants must have the ability to make informed decisions, especially when it comes to protecting their children’s health.”

SHA officials did not respond to a series of questions sent via email seeking clarification on how the organization vets contractors and formulates leases for residents, as well as how SHA plans to begin correcting the issues highlighted by the EPA.

In a press release issued Friday, SHA Executive Director William Simmons said the disclosure forms used to notify residents were not completed correctly, though he did not specify whether it was tenants or SHA employees who failed to properly file the paperwork.

To comply with EPA rules, Simmons said, SHA will develop and adopt rules to properly disclose the presence of lead to tenants. Residents will also receive all available records and reports related to the presence of lead based paint at their complex.

Simmons added SHA will submit quarterly reports to the EPA to ensure compliance with the terms of the settlement.

An EPA spokesperson did not respond to a series of questions sent via email, seeking clarification on the penalties SHA could face if they fail to comply with the terms of the settlement.

The presence of lead in children’s blood, the World Health Organization says, attacks the brain and the central nervous system at high levels of exposure, leading to long-term effects such as intellectual disabilities and behavioral disorders. Just more than one in 10 children in the city showed elevated levels of lead in their blood last year based on testing data from the Onondaga County Health Department.

The EPA’s audit also found SHA attempted to remove lead from the homes by employing contractors who are not certified by the EPA to perform lead remediation work. Non-certified contractors can lead to the spread of hazardous lead dust to other properties or to nearby soil, advocates say. It could also lead to contractors bringing lead dust and paint chips back into their own homes.

Simmons noted that the organization typically employs EPA RRP-certified contractors, with the exception of a period of time when those certifications had lapsed.  

As part of a settlement, SHA agreed to provide disclosures of potential lead poisoning hazards to tenants, as well as send the EPA quarterly reports of lead remediation work in the next year, including proof of contractors’ EPA certifications. In return, SHA will face no penalties for its mismanagement of the properties in question.

read more of Central Current’s coverage of Syracuse’s lead crisis

Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...