The lead poisoning problems of Flint, Michigan are well known, but did you know there’s a South Bend neighborhood where kids have elevated lead levels that are six times greater?

The revelation came recently as the Reutter’s news agency crunched some numbers and opened some eyes across the country.

“Surveyed I think thousands of census tracts and talked to people in a lot of communities, South Bend was one of them. 31 percent, I believe, of children tested between 2005 and 2015 (in Census District Six) according to the data that surfaced in that research showed some kind of elevated blood level,” said Mayor Pete Buttigieg, (D) South Bend.

The South Bend neighborhood put under the microscope is known as Census District Six on the city’s near northwest side running between Portage and Lincolnway West.

While Flint’s problems with lead are linked to the public drinking water supply, South Bend’s are being blamed on exposure to lead based paint.

“This is not about water,” said Mayor Buttigieg. “As a matter of fact the water in South Bend is in great shape.”

Mayor Buttigieg says the latest city water tests in Census District Six revealed a maximum lead contamination level of 3.7 parts per billion, while 15 parts per billion is where the threat to health begins.

Meantime, today in Census District Six, paint could be seen peeling on the outside of numerous homes and officials suspect that the same thing is going on inside.

“In one case recently, we found out that the children sleeping in bunk beds, the one that was the highest one was peeling off the paint from the ceiling,” said St. Joseph County Health Officer Luis Galup.

Officials say South Bend has a lot of older homes that were built before lead paint was banned in 1978 and those homes ted to be in low income neighborhoods where families don’t have the cash for upkeep.

“I live very close to Census Tract Six, I live in an old house, I’m thinking twice about some of these things now,” said Mayor Buttigieg. ”And because we do have a lot of areas of relatively low income and older houses, that means that a community like South Bend faces some risks.”

Resources to deal with local lead problems have come and gone, but are now said to be at an historic low. “Unfortunately we used to have ten public health nurses, and at the present we only have five,” said Dr. Galup.