Hundreds of public housing apartments statewide will soon be made safer as part of an effort to remove toxic lead paint from the state’s housing.
About 1,000 apartments in Hartford and Norwich will undergo lead paint remediation.
Connecticut’s aging housing leaves children particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can lead to damage to the brain, kidneys and nervous system.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports blood tests are the best way to detect whether a child has been exposed to lead.
Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Richard Monocchio met Friday with state and city leaders to discuss the remediation program.
Connecticut’s housing stock leaves children particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, Monocchio said.
“In a region where we have older housing stock, it's so critical that we preserve it, and one of the ways we're doing that is by making it safe from health hazards,” Monoccchio said.
The funding is part of a nationwide $47 million investment in lead remediation. With the combined funds of more than $11 million, Connecticut received the most funding of any state, Monocchio said.
About 800 apartments in Hartford and more than 70 in Norwich will be cleared of lead paint, but several months of planning and testing will take place before remediation can begin, Hartford Housing Authority Executive Director Anette Sanderson said.
“First we have to do an overall assessment of our portfolio that we’re going to use the funds on. We have a year to do the assessment,” Sanderson said.
The remediation process will begin after the assessment and testing period, and should take less than three years from planning to lead removal.
Hartford Housing Authority received $4,038,000 for the remediation, and nearly all of the authority’s apartments will be part of the program, Sanderson said. With the program still in the planning stages, the Authority has no resident relocation plans announced.
Norwich Housing Authority received $7.5 million to remediate lead paint in the Oakwood Knoll development, which has 74 apartments, according to Norwich Housing Authority Executive Director Jeff Arn.
Twenty-two of the families at Oakwood Knoll have children under the age of 6, Arn said.
“Without this grant, we would have probably been able to do this work, but it would have taken over 10 years,” Arn said. “With the money we get every year from HUD, we're grateful for it, but it doesn't really go a long way, so this grant is amazing.”
Last year, New Haven announced a funding boost from HUD for its lead remediation program. In New Haven, more than 80% of homes in New Haven homes may have lead paint on the interior or exterior.
Along with lead paint remediation, Gov. Ned Lamont said the state is in the middle of several types of hazardous cleanup.
“That's why we are taking care of the lead pipes thanks to the infrastructure bill. That's why we have to do brownfield remediation,” Lamont said. “They don't have to do that in some other states. They're relatively new. We're an old manufacturing state. Every time we build housing, we’ve got to make sure you're building it on a safe location.”
