UPDATED: Sept. 26, 2017 at 11:13 p.m.

Following a visit by a contentious Department of Housing and Urban Development administrator, one city official said her comments about Syracuse lead paint remediation funding were “very positive.”

Lynne Patton, a recently appointed HUD regional administrator, toured Syracuse last week. Patton was a controversial pick by President Donald Trump to head the agency’s New Jersey and New York office. She has no previous housing policy experience.

Patton, during her visit, said she will fight to make sure Syracuse receives HUD lead paint remediation funds, according to Syracuse.com.

“It’s my priority to do everything in my power to ensure that Syracuse and Onondaga County are getting the grant funding they need,” Patton said, per Syracuse.com.

Paul Driscoll, commissioner of Syracuse’s department of neighborhood and business development, said he met Patton and had a brief conversation with her. They never spoke about the lead poisoning issue, though, he said.

Driscoll said Patton was in the city to observe how HUD Community Development Block Grant money is spent. She met several local officials.

“(Patton’s) statement is very positive, in a way. It is saying that HUD will help the city prepare a better application in the future. She didn’t commit to giving us money,” Driscoll added. “It is weird, because HUD has to be sensitive reviewing the application, it really can’t help you write the application.”

From 2009 to 2015, 12.3 percent of Syracuse children younger than 6 years old had high blood lead levels, according to data from the Onondaga County Health Department.

Syracuse’s Lead Hazard Control Program, though, was shut down in 2016 after HUD criticized the city’s program.

Children under the age of six are highly prone to lead poisoning. Lead, after entering the body, can cause brain damage and imbalance the nervous system.

Sally Santangelo, the executive director of CNY Fair Housing, also said she was encouraged by Patton’s comment. CNY Fair Housing is a local advocacy organization that identifies housing discrimination, according to the group’s website.

“I appreciate her focus on that issue,” she said of Patton.

Syracuse from 2014 to 2016 unsuccessfully applied for three HUD lead grants and one Healthy Homes Supplement for a total of about $10.2 million in lead funding.

Before 2013, the city received a total of nearly $30 million in HUD lead grants, officials said.

HUD officials in 2013 found that city lead inspectors were presuming lead paint existed in windows without testing them properly.

“Right after we corrected our issues, we applied again for a new round of money and we were denied,” Driscoll said.

Syracuse’s lead team would test for lead paint in city homes using an X-ray fluorescence device gun to establish high lead levels, Driscoll said.

The lead team, for example, would test 25 windows in a house for lead, Driscoll said. If the first three windows registered “hot,” inspectors would presume the other 22 windows also had hazardous lead levels.

“Rather than testing each window, we would say ‘OK, we have a pattern here,’” Driscoll said.

HUD initially put Syracuse’s program on probation in January 2013 for its window practices, disqualifying the city from future federal lead funding. That probation was lifted in 2014 following political pressure from Syracuse’s congressional delegation, though.

Lead remediation funding is more competitive now, he said, with more cities applying for grants.

Onondaga County, though, has successfully applied for multiple HUD lead grants.

Driscoll said the lead funds Syracuse received during the first 20 years of the program’s operation helped remediate lead hazards in 200 to 250 city homes.

Relying solely on HUD lead funds, though, is “not the way to resolve the lead issue,” Driscoll said. Proactive code enforcement and inspecting and testing houses, is key, he said.

“Lead is an example of how poor-quality housing can affect your health,” Santangelo added. “I think Ms. Patton will help resolve this issue in the city of Syracuse and get that program restored.”

The story has been updated for appropriate style.

Published on September 26, 2017 at 10:22 pm

Contact Eshalaxmi: erbarlin@syr.edu