Cleveland health officials are considering future steps following the loss of more than $3 million in grant funding for lead remediation work.
The state is taking back $3.3 million awarded to the city in 2024 as part of the Ohio Department of Development's Lead Safe Ohio Program over concerns the city was spending too slowly.
But the grant only allowed a $15,000 investment per home for door and window replacements specifically, Cleveland鈥檚 Chief of Integrated Development Tom McNair said at a council meeting Monday, and this wasn't enough remediation to make many Cleveland homes contaminated homes lead-safe.
"Most residents of our city can go outside right now and go out to their flower beds, and if you take a sample of the dirt, you're going to find high lead levels," McNair said. "It is everywhere, so a $15,000 grant to simply replace windows and doors that also requires lead clearance for that home, right, isn't nearly enough money."
Even with efforts from the state to find a compromise, these restrictions made it difficult for the city to invest the dollars into remediation work before the grants Feb. 28 deadline, McNair said.
This slow spending was felt by residents looking to make their homes lead safe, Cleveland Department of Public Health Director Dave Margolius said.
"For a resident [it] feels like long wait lists, not hearing back, not knowing where they are [in the process] and if they have a chance of getting their home improved." Margolius said. "So, it's a really difficult situation all around."
Cleveland spent $1.6 million to remediate 26 homes so far, but this barely scratches the surface of the estimated 100,000 lead-contaminated homes in the city.
"If the average costs for home repair for a given house in Cleveland (are) $100,000, we're talking about $10 billion being the need," Margolius said.
Remediation projects already under contract will move forward, McNair said, but the state will reallocate the remaining grant dollars to cities further along the process.
The city is on track to remediate 90 properties before the state funds are pulled, Margolius said, and still has about $10 million from three separate HUD grants to continue future remediation efforts.
Childhood lead poisoning rates are down in the city for the second year in a row, Margolius said, but changes need to be made to the city鈥檚 Department of Community Development to ensure this loss of funding doesn鈥檛 happen again.
"Of course it's challenging," Margolius said, "But we've got to figure out a way around those obstacles, of property ownership, of income eligibility requirements, of properties that might need more grants tied together, to meet the requirements set out in the grant."
Some of these changes are already underway, Margolius said. The city is in the process of hiring a new director for the Department of Community Development, and city departments are considering ways to collaborate to ensure deadlines for three remaining lead remediation grants are met before the funds can be pulled back.
Citywide collaboration should've been the approach since the funds were received, said Robin Brown, activist and founder of Concerned Citizen Organized Against Lead.
"How can we best work together to move all this money?" Brown said. "I bet you none of them departments sat together to figure that out. They just got the money and worked it from their end. And so, if I'm not talking to you and talking to you ... how are we getting this done?"
As the city continues to reassess its spending process, Margolius said he hopes residents don't lose faith in its ability to solve its lead problem. But for advocates like Brown, that faith is wavering.
"I feel disgusted as a resident," Brown said. "I have no trust that our administration could handle this because they didn't. They failed."
