City officials misled N.Y. congresswoman on lead paint in public housing

Aug. 05--The city misled a congresswoman about its decision years ago to ignore federal guidelines on dealing with lead poisoning of children living in public housing.

In an October 2016 letter obtained by the Daily News, then-Housing Authority Chairwoman Shola Olatoye attacked a Daily News report on lead paint in NYCHA buildings and assured U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn/Queens) that the authority was on top of the hot-button issue.

The letter specifically claimed that the city Health Department followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in assessing the risk of lead paint in public housing.

There was only one problem: At that time, the statement was false.

When the letter was sent to Velazquez, the CDC had been advising health officials nationwide to embrace a standard they'd set in 2012 -- to initiate an environmental investigation if a child under 6 registers a blood-lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter or more.

The CDC specifically advised that an environmental risk assessment needed to be made to determine the source of lead, which would include inspecting the child's apartment.

But the city Health Department chose not to adopt that standard, and instead used a much igher standard of 10 micrograms to trigger an investigation.

As a result, between 2012 and 2016 when the letter was written, the Health Department did not investigate the source of lead as the CDC advised for more than 800 children under 6 living in NYCHA buildings registered blood-lead levels between 5 and 9 micrograms.

None of that is referenced in the Oct. 19, 2016, letter from Olatoye to Velazquez. Instead, the letter states, "New York City'sHealth Department looks to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development) for guidance on identifying risks which are limited to children under six years age (sic) and hazardous conditions which include peeling or flaking lead-based paint."

The revelation of the 800-plus lead-poisoned children by The News last month contrasted with Mayor de Blasio's repeated insistence that only a handful of children living in city public housing had been harmed by lead paint. The October 2016 letter from Olatoye also claims the city health department had "connected" only 17 children with elevated lead-blood levels to public housing between 2010 and 2015. There was no mention of the 800 kids.

After The News' revelation, de Blasio announced that the New York City Housing Authority quietly adopted the CDC's 5-microgram standard in January and would use that bar for all non-NYCHA properties going forward.

Asked about the discrepancy between DOH's rejection of the CDC standard and what Olatoye represented in the 2016 letter, Congresswoman Velazquez responded, "Unfortunately this latest disclosure fits a longstanding pattern at NYCHA of deceiving the public, elected officials and, most importantly, residents."

In her letter to Velazquez, Olatoye also claimed that NYCHA was performing all lead paint inspections as required by HUD.

She did not mention that for the prior four years, the agency simply stopped performing annual lead paint inspections as required by local law and HUD regulations even though she knew that at the time.

City officials have said that Olatoye first learned of the non-compliance in April 2016 and told Mayor de Blasio about it, but neither the mayor nor NYCHA informed tenants and the public of this for nearly two years.

And federal prosecutors, in an 80-page complaint filed in June, said Olatoye has made false statements on three separate occasions in late 2016 regarding NYCHA's lead paint inspections and clean-up. Twice she falsely certified in HUD documents that NYCHA was in compliance on lead when she knew they weren't, and in a meeting with HUD she failed to disclose how the authority was not meeting other federal requirements on lead.

Last week NYCHA suddenly announced it appeared to be in non-compliance on issues other than lead, including tenant protection, bid procurement specs, and emergency management plans.

"This is a new day at NYCHA and our new leadership is changing the way we do business. From creating a new compliance unit, to expanding our lead-based paint inspections, we are continuously working to strengthen the Authority and better serve our residents," agency spokeswoman Robin Levine told the News.

On Wednesday U.S. Rep. Velazquez wrote a letter to interim NYCHA Chairman Stanley Brezenoff demanding details on what NYCHA believes to be the broader issues of non-compliance.

"It's profoundly disturbing to learn that, in addition to the already well documented failings in areas like lead paint remediation, NYCHA has other systemic problems that likely mean it's not complying with federal law," said Velázquez. "New Yorkers deserve a full accounting of the facts, which is why I'm asking the agency for specifics on what's gone wrong, what's being done to fix it and when we can expect improvements."

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