by Thomas Breen | Oct 1, 2019 7:29 am

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Posted to: City Hall, Health, True Vote

The federal government has awarded New Haven $5.6 million in two grants designed to help local landlords cover the cost of lead paint hazard abatement — giving the city another chance after it lost out on the same funding last year because of underspending.

On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that New Haven has been awarded a $5 million grant from the Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction funding program and a $600,000 grant from the Healthy Homes Supplemental funding program.

“The City will address lead hazards in 260 housing units providing safer homes for low and very low-income families with children,” the HUD press release reads. “The City will also perform healthy homes assessments in 50 units, and work with other medical and social service providers.”

According to documentation that the city Health Department submitted to the Board of Alders this summer in preparation for the Aug. 9 federal application deadline, the $5 million Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction funding should last three-and-a-half years, from Sept. 30, 2019 through March 31, 2023.

It should fund a forgivable loan program to help homeowners cover the cost of lead paint hazard abatement in 200-plus housing units throughout the city.

And, according to the Health Department’s fiscal impact statement, it should be divided into $1.85 million spent on family relocation, $1.75 million spent on grants and loans, $1.1 million spent on personnel, and $300,000 spent on “Other (Contractual Yale)”.

This is the seventh time that the city has received HUD funding for the purpose of lead-based paint hazard abatement, according to documents submitted to the alders, with the previous grants having been received in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015.

Last Grant Denied

The federal funds come just in the nick of time, since the city’s current federal lead abatement grant is slated to expire in November. The city’s most recent application for federal lead funding, submitted in the fall of 2018, was denied.

According to HUD spokesperson Rhonda Siciliano, New Haven’s last application for a $4.1 million Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction grant in 2018 was denied because the city “was not meeting its benchmark goals of making low-income homes lead-safe” as stipulated in the terms of its 2015, $3.2 million grant.

Siciliano said that, by the time the city applied for a new grant in 2018, it had only reached 54 percent of its 200-unit lead abatement target. The city had also only submitted invoices and been reimbursed for only 47.73 percent of its grant award at the time of its 2018 application.

HUD requires that an applicant have reached at least 75 percent of the lead abatement target outlined in its current grant, Siciliano said, when applying for new funding. Each applicant must also have been spent at least 75 percent of its current grant at the time that it applies for a new one.

That three-and-a-half year, 2015 grant was supposed to end in May 2019, Siciliano told the Independent. She said HUD worked with the city health department to improve its performance earlier this year, and, “when the City demonstrated that it was doing better, HUD allowed it an additional six months to complete its grant, which will now end in November.” The city is now on track to meet the benchmarks outlined in its initial 2015 grant award, she said.

Siciliano said that the the federal lead hazard control grants operate on a reimbursable basis: Grantees, like the City of New Haven, submit invoices and other technical documents to prove that the lead abatement work covered by the grant is actually being done.

The 2015 grant identified the Yale Lead Program as its programmatic partner, Siciliano said. It also identified America One, Exidox Enterprise, J and A, TLC Services, and Yale New Haven Hospital as eligible contractors under the grant.

“HUD’s Government Technical Representative for the lead hazard control grant reviews the documentation in accordance with the grant agreement’s provisions, discusses the invoice and the work with the grantee as needed, and makes a decision on whether to pay all, some, or none of the invoice,” she wrote. “HUD also conducts annual reviews of lead hazard control grantee performance in accordance with the grant agreement.”

The federal funding announcement comes just a few weeks after the Board of Alders voted to create five additional permanent lead inspector positions in the city budget, bringing the total number for the local health department up to eight.

It also comes on the heels of an aldermanic committee tabling the department’s proposed loosening of existing local lead inspection requirements after an outpouring of public testimony in opposition.

And in the courts, the city continues to battle legal aid in an ongoing class action lawsuit regarding the health department’s lax enforcement of existing local law.

Last Thursday, city Deputy Corporation Counsel Roderick Williams filed a motion in state court for an extension of time “to respond and object” to discovery requested filed by legal aid on Aug. 2. “The additional time is needed because of the nature of certain of the interrogatories, the volume of some of the materials requested, the need to review some of the answers provided to certain of the requested interrogatories and production materials for confidentiality and privilege reasons, and the difficulty in readily obtaining some of the requested materials and answers.”

New Haven Legal Assistance Association Director of Litigation Shelley White submitted an objection to the motion for more time Friday, writing that legal aid has no problem with assenting to a 30-day extension in time for the city to provide all necessary documents. But it will not assent to a 30-day extension to the statutory timeline by which the city has to decide whether or not it will object to the discovery requests.

“This case challenges Defendants’ failure to comply with state and local laws protecting children under 6 years of age from lead paint poisoning,” White wrote. “To the extent that Defendants object to any discovery requests, time of the essence for the parties to discuss and resolve such objections without delay. Defendants have sufficient legal resources devoted to this case to be able to object to specific discovery requests within the sixty-day timeframe provided by Practice Book Sections 13-7 and 13-10.”

Previous lead coverage:

• 5 New Lead Inspector Positions Approved

• Outrage Stalls Weakened Lead Law

• Lead Paint Legal Tab Tops $118K

• City Plan Passes On Lead Law

• City Loses Again On Lead

• Judge Denies City’s Motion To Dismiss Lead Suit

• City, Legal Aid Clash In Court On Lead

• New Lead Proposal “Eviscerates” Mandate

• Lead Cleanup Pricetag: $91M?

• Lead Panel’s Advice Rejected

• Lead Paint Chief Retires

• Lead Paint Fight Rejoined

• Harp Switches Gears On Lead

• Motion Accuses City Of Contempt

• City Loses Again On Lead

• Briefs Debate “Lead Poisoning”

• New Haven: Another Flint?

• Harp Administration Admits Relaxing Lead Standard To Save $$

• Class-Action Suit Slams City On Lead

• City, Legal Aid Clash On Lead Paint

• Legal Aid To City: Get Moving On Lead Paint Law

• 100+ Tenants Caught In Lead Limbo

• 2 Agencies, 2 Tacks On Lead Paint

• Chapel Apartments Get 3rd Lead Order

• Lead Sends Family Packing

• Health Officials Grilled On Lead Plans

• Judge Threatens To Find City In Contempt

• Same Mandy House Cited Twice For Lead Paint

• Lead $ Search Advances

• 3 Landlords Hit With New Lead Orders

• Another Judge Rips City On Lead

• Judge To City: Get Moving On Lead

• Health Department Seeks Another $4.1M For Lead Abatement

• City-OK’d Lead Fixes Fail Independent Inspection

• Judge: City Dragged Feet On Lead

• 2nd Kid Poisoned After City Ordered Repairs

• Judge: City Must Pay

• City Sued Over Handling Of Lead Poisonings

• City’s Lead Inspection Goes On Trial

• Eviction Withdrawn On Technicality

• 2nd Child Poisoned; Where’s The City?

• Carpenter With Poisoned Kid Tries A Fix

• High Lead Levels Stall Eviction

• 460 Kids Poisoned By Lead In 2 Years

• Bid-Rigging Claimed In Lead Cleanup

• Judge Orders Total Lead Paint Clean-Up

• Legal Aid Takes City To Task On Lead