‘We are a high-risk jurisdiction:’ Why lead paint problems persist in Erie

Rusmir Kahrimanovic spends a lot of time driving through city of Erie neighborhoods.

When he does, Kahrimanovic constantly sees signs of the daunting public health challenge he’s been working for more than a decade to eradicate.

Deteriorating home facades.

Decades-old window framing.

Flaking paint on front porches.

Kahrimanovic is fully aware of the dangers that lead-based paint can cause.

He’s seen the data.

Lead is a toxic metal. Exposure to significant levels, over time, can lead to a host of problems in children, especially those under 6 years old, that can severely affect a child’s intelligence, behavior and development, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At very high levels, lead poisoning can kill.

And according to the World Health Organization, long-term lead exposure can also lead to a number of problems for adults, including increased risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues and kidney damage.

“I look around. I pay attention. And just from seeing the houses from my vehicle, I know,” said Kahrimanovic, 52, the founder of Erie’s Rules Construction LLC. “There’s lead paint in all those houses, probably.”

Rules Construction specializes in residential lead paint abatement. The company is frequently hired by the Erie Redevelopment Authority to handle its lead-removal projects at single-family homes and rental units throughout Erie County. Kahrimanovic his crew recently worked on a Redevelopment Authority-funded lead abatement project at a home in the 900 block of West 24th Street.

Kahrimanovic estimates that his company has handled lead abatement at more than 200 Erie homes in the past 10 years.

“There’s just so many old houses in Erie that it’s almost (guaranteed) you will see lead paint,” Kahrimanovic said. “I know from what I do every day. You can tell there are really so many of them all over (Erie) just by looking at them from outside.”

‘Tip of the iceberg’

According to city Redevelopment Authority documents and other data reviewed by the Erie Times-News, more than $21 million in federal funding has flowed to the city since 1997 to combat lead-based paint in homes.

That money includes nearly $18 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development earmarked for residential lead abatement and awarded over multiple years, as well as $3.2 million from the city’s $76 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars.

The ARP funds were distributed to cities nationwide in 2021 to aid in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Redevelopment Authority, the money has been used to deal with lead-based paint from nearly 1,000 housing units throughout Erie County, including apartments and single-family homes.

The bulk of those properties are within the city of Erie.

Lead-based paint was widely used in American houses until 1978, when the federal government banned its use in homes.

Contractors typically either employ paint remediation, which involves painting over existing lead paint with newer, lead-free paint, or removing lead paint from a home entirely.

During the 27-year period of financing reviewed by the Times-News, however, the Redevelopment Authority has likely just scratched the surface when it comes to the removal of leaded paint in residences — a significant issue in Erie given the age of the city’s housing stock.

U.S. Census figures show the city has nearly 44,000 housing units and that roughly half of them were built before 1950. Local officials have theorized for years that as many as 79% of the city’s homes contain at least some lead paint.

That presumption is based on housing-stock age and a hypothesis accepted nationwide by government and health officials that homes built before 1950 are almost certain to contain some lead paint.

“We’re just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to addressing (lead),” said Aaron Snippert, the city Redevelopment Authority’s executive director.

Snippert pointed out that the city learned in October it would soon receive another $4.7 million from HUD for lead-based paint remediation.

“Every time we put in a grant application, (federal agencies) know we are a high-risk jurisdiction,” he said. “We have over 8,000 pre-1940 rental units in the city of Erie, for example. In the last nine years we’ve probably addressed hundreds of them, but there are still thousands of those units that we haven’t even touched.

“There’s just a lot of this housing stock that has lead,” Snippert said.” If you took all of properties we’ve addressed, they would make up (several) entire city blocks. But still, there’s a lot of work left to do, it’s a long process and this is going to be a long fight in this city.”

‘A moral problem’

Charles Buki knows something about Erie’s challenges and efforts to remake itself.

He agrees with Snippert.

“Lead issues are real, and the costs of mitigation are not insignificant,” said Buki, the founder and principal consultant of Alexandria, Virginia-based urban planning firm CZB.

Buki is also the author of Erie Refocused, a citywide comprehensive plan unveiled in 2016 that addresses the city’s future needs in areas including housing, transportation, land use and economic development.

As part of his research for Erie Refocused, Buki and his consulting team examined the city’s housing stock.

“The presence of lead can largely be inert. … Until one begins to scrape and paint, it is not a huge problem,” Buki said. “Kids can eat the peels, and opening and closing of windows creates friction which creates hazardous dust/particulates.’

Buki recently told the Times-News that, in his opinion, successfully mitigating lead hazards involves three interconnected parts.

First, there are health concerns, thus making the issue “a moral problem,” Buki said.

“In turn, this affects what people breathe, especially children,” Buki said. “And this affects everything for those kids thereafter.”

Second, Buki explained, lead persists in many homes because “older homes are less marketable until any number of issues are addressed,” including the presence of lead-based paint.

Third, according to Buki, “as the market problem metastasizes, prices fall, and as they fall, the homes (with existing lead paint) become the affordable option for households with the lowest incomes,” which in turn can make exposure to lead-based paint disproportionately affect poor and minority communities.

Survey: Erie among top 20 U.S. cities for lead exposure

Data compiled by Paint Gnome, an online services site, underscores the concerns Snippert and Buki have raised.

Paint Gnome in January unveiled its list of the most vulnerable U.S. cities when it comes to lead paint exposure in homes.

Erie ranked 19th in Paint Gnome’s survey out of 500 cities examined.

Paint Gnome considered housing stock age and the availability of certified lead-based paint abatement, inspection and testing companies, among other factors, in compiling its rankings.

“Although lead paint was banned in the U.S. 46 years ago, around 35% of American homes still have traces of lead paint,” Paint Gnome reports on its website. “There is no ‘safe’ amount of lead exposure.”

Rochester’s approach

Albert Algarin understands the challenges that Erie faces better than most people.

Algarin is the lead paint program coordinator in Rochester, New York, about 170 miles northeast of Erie. In that city, more than half of the roughly 100,000 housing units were built before 1950 and 60% of housing unit occupants are renters, according to census data.

Rochester ranks 14th on Paint Gnome’s list of U.S. cities when it comes to lead poisoning.

In the early 2000s, Rochester was seeing elevated blood lead levels in about 1,600 children a year. That’s when the city decided to get aggressive.

Working with Monroe County government officials and other local agencies, the city helped launch the Coalition to Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning, a multi-faceted, collaborative approach to childhood lead poisoning and making housing units safer.

The coalition provides various resources including lead safety education, help in finding certified lead-abatement firms and remediation grants for homeowners.

New legislation was also key in Rochester’s effort to combat lead-based paint.

Rochester City Council in 2005 signed off on a lead poisoning prevention ordinance that mandated required regular inspections for lead paint hazards at rental units citywide.

Algarin said since that ordinance went into effect, the numbers of children in Rochester exhibiting elevated blood lead levels via testing has dropped to fewer than 150 a year.

“Our (inspection) program has been key to accessing numerous properties,” Algarin said. “The more properties we inspect, the more lead we can identify, and consequently we can address more problems.

“If you talk to any sort of lead advocate or anybody on the profession of lead, abatement is what you want,” Algarin continued. “You want to remove those surfaces with lead.”

Asked what advice Rochester officials have for Erie, Algarin said: “Collaborate with your lead advocacy folks. Talk with the politicians. Talk to the educational people out there, the teachers and the medical professionals.

“Establish a strong relationship with your county (government) on the issue. And focus on ZIP codes where the highest incidents of elevated lead levels are,” Algarin said. “You really want to focus on those areas.”

Has exposure to lead-based paint impacted you or your family? We’d like to hear from you. Contact Kevin Flowers at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers.

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This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Lead paint is still in thousands of Erie homes