Jun 3
2025
Protesting city inaction on lead poisoning
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Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, executive director of the Partnership for the Public Good (center) joined by community advocates and state elected officials Jon Rivera (left) and April Baskin (right). Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel
Local housing advocates and elected officials are condemning Buffalo’s failure to spend over three-quarters of a $2 million federal grant dedicated to removing toxic lead paint from city homes.
Meanwhile, proposed state legislation aims to pressure landlords to clean their property of lead when identified by housing inspectors.
Investigative Post reported last week that the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency to date has only spent $479,481 of the $2 million Lead Hazard Reduction Grant awarded in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Any funds not committed by July 4 must be returned to the federal government.
Out of the target 110 units BURA set to help remediate, work was completed in just 18 homes.
“The last couple of years, we have repeatedly heard mayors of the city — Mayor Brown, Mayor Scanlon — commissioners of the city, say lead is not our job, that’s the county’s job,” said Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, executive director of the Partnership for the Public Good. “But this is your housing stock in the City of Buffalo. These are your children in the city of Buffalo, and for our city government to say ‘not our job’ is completely unacceptable.”
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomRepresentatives from the Partnership for the Public Good and Jericho Road Community Health Center, along with state elected officials, highlighted the seriousness of lead poisoning in Buffalo children and criticized the city’s failed history with the HUD grant and other measures meant to address lead in city homes.
State Assembly Member Jon Rivera called the loss of federal funds “disappointing and embarrassing.”
“The City of Buffalo is awarded millions of dollars to tackle this problem and doesn’t even know how to manage the money, doesn’t know how to manage paperwork, doesn’t know how to manage people, and here we are losing this money,” he said.
HUD has required the city to return money in the past — both in 1995 and in 2001 — due to program mismanagement.
Hope Young-Watkins, BURA’s senior director, has said the city has been hamstrung this time around by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of contractors and geographical limitations.
State Senator April Baskin said the city can’t justify the failure to spend the funds. Baskin helped to establish Erie County’s Lead It Go program during the pandemic, which addresses the effects of lead exposure in children from birth to age three.
“There is no excuse why the City of Buffalo is [being forced] to return over a million dollars of free funding that could have saved hundreds of children’s lives,” she said.
Baskin and Rivera cited state legislation they’re hoping to advance that would require insurers to cover lead poisoning in children..The legislation also would require insurers to discontinue coverage when a landlord is notified of a case of lead poisoning at a property and not reactivate the insurance until the landlord has addressed the problem. The legislation mandates landlords to test a property for lead paint and provide the results before selling or leasing it, as well as replacement of all lead service lines in the state by 2037.
“We will continue to introduce legislation at the state level to help reverse this, but we can no longer accept this poor outcome from the City of Buffalo,” Baskin said.
Ó Súilleabháin called the grant debacle and the city’s failure to fully enforce its own inspections program “two failures coming together,” as city inspectors were tasked with informing landlords of the grant funding whenever they identified lead hazards.
“They weren’t making referrals, they weren’t signing people up or qualifying them for these repair grants,” she said.
Catherine Grainge, director of advocacy for Jericho Road Community Health Center, said an Erie County survey found most children with high blood lead levels come from poor communities, Black and brown neighborhoods, and immigrant communities.
She noted that the effects of child lead poisoning are irreversible and can lead to neurological and developmental delays, learning disabilities and behavioral issues. Grainge called on city officials to prioritize lead hazard removals in homes, especially those where children reside.
“When a child comes to our clinic with a high lead level, we can treat them. But if their environment doesn’t change, if the thing that has made them sick in the first place doesn’t get any better, they won’t be either,” she said.
