Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz on Friday announced a delay in implementing the city’s lead-safe law, which would have required the first group of rental properties built before 1978 to receive lead-safe certificates by Tuesday.
Instead, the administration will push back the rollout and propose changes to the law itself, opening up the possibility of reverting back to a lead-safe housing program that looks more like the city’s 2016 law than the one Toledo City Council passed in November.
City officials in a news release said complying with the existing law was “unrealistic and too difficult for property owners and tenants” because of the coronavirus pandemic, but questions about how the program would be funded and enforced have gone largely unanswered since the new law passed.
It requires all residential rental properties — not just those with four units or less — and family child-care homes built before 1978 to obtain lead-safe certificates in order to prevent lead paint poisoning in children. It also outlines compliance deadlines phased in by census tract, with the first group to be certified by June 30, the second by June 30, 2021, and the third by June 30, 2022.
But those deadlines and parameters will soon change, officials said.
Most significantly, the administration will propose reverting back to the requirement that only residential rentals with four units or less, plus the child-care homes, need a lead-safe certificate.
“We plan to continue to work with the Lead Coalition, city council, and the community to set new, reasonable compliance dates,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz said in the news release. “Our goal is to make sure every home in Toledo is lead-safe and that every child can grow up without the terrible effects of lead poisoning.”
The mayor said he plans to present the proposed amendments, including new enforcement dates, to the Lead Coalition and city council no later than Aug. 31.
His goals include:
• Reconvene the Toledo Lead Safe Coalition.
• Explore the potential of a lead-safe fund to assist with loans and grants to aid landlord compliance.
• Hire a city of Toledo lead coordinator.
• Hire a public relations consultant to develop and implement a lead poisoning prevention strategic communications campaign. There is currently $50,000 budgeted to hire a firm.
• Dedicate $500,000 of federal Community Development Block Grant funding through 2021 to assist with lead compliance.
• Develop an initiative to train and certify lead inspectors and workers.
• Partner with the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program to complete lead remediation of 20 properties in at-risk census tracts beginning July 1.
• Continue implementation of Toledo’s federally-funded lead-based paint hazard control grant, which has a $2.5 million budget.
The city’s neighborhoods department will provide oversight, as the November law calls for, but officials are hoping to contract with the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department for inspections and issuing certificates.
The health department’s role in the program was central to a lawsuit filed by landlord Cheryl Mack and the Property Investors Network after the city passed its first lead-safe housing law in 2016, which gave enforcement powers to the health department.
Ohio’s Sixth District Court of Appeals in December overturned a lower court’s permanent injunction, leaving room for the city to again enlist the health department’s resources.
That appeals court decision also found the city’s 2016 law that required lead-safe certificates only for residential rentals with one to four units was not discriminatory, but “rationally related to the ordinance’s goal, which is to help prevent lead poisoning in the city.”
City Councilman Larry Sykes, who pushed to enact the 2019 lead-safe law before a legal decision was rendered on the validity of the 2016 law, said he supports a delay in certificate deadlines.
“We have not been meeting or communicating so that the renters or property owners would know what was going on,” he said. “In all fairness, it was best to delay this.”
He added that he is hopeful the health department can play a strong role in enforcement, and he is eager to get a public-awareness campaign off the ground so tenants and landlords know their rights and responsibilities when it comes to lead paint hazards.
Andrew Fidler, vice president for the Property Investors Network, said he has tried registering properties this year to get them lead-safe certified, and city officials have told him they don’t have the ability to do it. He said he is glad to see the administration delaying the rollout instead of punishing landlords for not meeting a deadline he said they couldn’t meet if they tried.
Mr. Fidler said he believes all rental properties built before 1978 should be subject to certification, not just the smaller units, a sticking point of the now-decided lawsuit. But he is glad the city is starting somewhere to prevent lead paint poisoning.
“Just because it's multi-family doesn't mean it gets to slip by our housing standards,” he said. “At the same time, they've got to be able to implement something.”
First Published June 26, 2020, 6:34 p.m.
