City to collect $4M grant for lead paint abatement program
WOONSOCKET – The city is in line for an infusion of $4 million in federal money to run lead-abatement programs – part of a larger allotment to address lead risks elsewhere in the region announced this week by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI).
The city’s portion represents roughly a third of all lead abatement funds that will be disbursed throughout the state – about $12.4 million in all to identify and abate leadbased paint hazards in several communities with the greatest need.
Rhode Island Housing will receive $7,841,160 from the High Impact Neighborhoods Demonstration, a new grant program designed by Reed, as well as a $599,800 in Healthy Homes Initiative (HHI) funds to help eliminate dangerous lead paint and other housing-related health hazards. The funding will be targeted to areas of greatest need, including Central Falls and
Pawtucket, and may be used to help clean up lead and other health hazards in the home; train workers in lead safety methods; and increase public awareness about childhood lead poisoning.
The HHI funds may be used to prevent radon exposure, electrical hazards, and carbon monoxide problems and other household dangers.
Reed created the High Impact Neighborhoods Demonstration in 2018 to address lead abatement and examine the effectiveness of intensive, multi-year investments in lead-based paint remediation activities in low-income communities. The program aims to reduce the cost of lead-based paint remediation by creating greater economies of scale and lowering grantees’ administrative expenses.
RIH is one of nine grantees nationwide in the first-ever round of funding in the new High Impact Neighborhoods Demonstration initiative. Reed included an additional $64 million for the program in the 2020 Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill that was approved earlier this week by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The funds targeted expressly for Woonsocket are the result of a merit-based grant competition, and will allow the city to establish lead abatement programs with various nonprofit partners, the Childhood Lead Action Project (CLAP) and the Community Action Agency of Providence (CAPP). Renters and homeowners will both be able to qualify for help.
“It was a competitive grant,” said Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt. “There were other entities that also wanted to apply. They applied under our application. It will be sort of a collaboration but we will be the lead agency on the $4 million grant.”
Baldelli-Hunt said the city will essentially create a lead-abatement program from scratch, so details of how funds will trickle down to individual properties, tenants and landlords have yet to be developed. Citing the scale of the grant, however, the mayor said it’s likely the city will hire someone to serve as the director of the program.
“At this point I’m very interested to know all the different approaches we can take for lead remediation,” said the mayor. “I’d be interested in seeing what approaches we can take for housing that has been left vacant for years, or abandoned.”
Reed says the grant is part of $319 million for lead abatement nationwide.
“Lead poisoning is a preventable tragedy, and we need to do everything we can to give kids a healthy start to life,” Reed said. “There are simple steps we can take to prevent permanent damage from lead poisoning that could last a lifetime, but it takes real resources and collective commitment to get the job done.”
A known toxin, lead can cause serious health problem for individuals who are exposed to it over lengthy periods of time, and it can also impair brain development in small children. Lead-based paint was banned by the federal government in 1978, but it continues to be a serious health problem for children living in older buildings and for communities with significant stocks of older housing.
Reed says lead poisoning disproportionately affects the lives of children from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds and can have lifelong, irreversible consequences, including severely inhibiting healthy development and compromising learning ability. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, children in at least 4 million U.S. households are exposed to high levels of lead, making them seven times more likely to drop out of school and six times more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system.
The CDC estimates that 535,000 American children under 6 years old are affected by lead poisoning. According to the latest Rhode Island Kids Count Factbook, 6.1 percent of the state’s 10,934 Rhode Island children entering kindergarten in 2020 who were tested for lead poisoning, or 662 children, had confirmed elevated blood lead levels, which is defined as 5 or more micrograms of per deciliter of blood.