The City Housing Authority has a new tactic in its struggle to address its lead-paint inspection scandal: Blame the tenants.
In the last few weeks, NYCHA sent “breach of lease” notices to 48 tenants who have young children in the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn after inspecting the apartments and finding lead paint there.
The ominous bureaucratic notices specifically warned that the tenants faced possible eviction due to a “failure to comply with LB (lead-based) paint regulations.”
“This is to advise you that termination of your lease is being considered because you have breached NYCHA’s rules and regulations,” the notices scolded.
In one letter obtained by the Daily News, managers even double-underlined one particularly condescending sentence that appears to blame tenants for years of NYCHA delays in completing the inspections.
The Housing Authority suddenly has a sense of urgency.
“This is a very serious matter and you are urged to make every effort to keep this appointment,” the letter read.
As it happens, NYCHA itself has breached its requirements regarding lead-based paint regulations.
NYCHA stopped doing required annual lead paint inspections in 2012 in violation of local law and federal regulations. NYCHA figured this out in spring 2016 and has since pushed hard to check 4,200 apartments presumed to have lead paint where children 6 and under live.
Officials claimed they accomplished this task in 2016. Now this year they say they are near the finish line with only a few hundred apartments to go by Dec. 31.
NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake said the “breach of lease” notices went out in error and only to the 48 tenants in Red Hook. No one, she emphasized, actually faces eviction.
“We’re grateful for the partnership of our residents and deeply regret any stress this notice caused,” she said.
To tenants already reeling from the realization that they and their children are living in apartments with lead paint, the “breach of lease” missive was just another kick in the gut.
“They never explained, they just set up an appointment,” said Luz Martinez, 63, who got her letter on Nov. 30.
Public Advocate Letitia James, who has called for NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye to resign, visited the Red Hook Houses last week to encourage Martinez and other tenants with small children to have their kids’ blood tested for lead as soon as possible.
James has been particularly critical of NYCHA and Mayor de Blasio for hiding from tenants and the public for more than a year the fact that the authority was out of compliance on lead-paint inspections.
“To hide that information from those who were impacted most is extremely alarming,” she said. “Lead causes retardation, it causes developmental delays. And to deny residents of public housing that information to me constitutes a crime.”
Issuing the “breach of lease” letters is a mark of desperation, James added.
“It’s a case of blaming the victim and it’s a case of not taking responsibility for the actions of NYCHA,” she said. “Now because they’re up against the clock, they’re going to say we’re going to inspect apartments by any means necessary.”
Since a Nov. 14 report by the Department of Investigation revealed that NYCHA was falsely certifying it was in compliance, The News revealed that for years they’ve sent untrained workers to handle complicated lead-paint cleanup.
Last week NYCHA admitted for the first time that they are not even sure of the scope of the problem within the authority’s 178,000 apartments.
In the middle of all this, Red Hook tenant Martinez got her “breach of lease” notice, demanding that she show up at the development’s management office Tuesday, the same day members of City Council grilled Olatoye about the scandal.
At the management office, Martinez says she found dozens of other angry tenants who’d received the same letters. All were told NYCHA will return to their apartments in the coming weeks to do “paint correction.”
Martinez, a 63-year-old grandmother, is confused and angry about all of this because she is raising grandchildren, 3-year-old twins Zahnya and Zion, and her 17-year-old niece, Tatiana, in a two-bedroom apartment which she now knows contains lead paint.
She moved into the apartment four years ago and it wasn’t inspected for lead paint until June. After that inspection, she says she was told workers would be back within 90 days to remove the lead paint as required under federal regulations.
Ninety days passed, then 120, then 150. Then on Nov. 30, instead of workers trained in lead-paint removal, the “breach of lease” notice showed up under her door.
Martinez’s niece, Tatiana, says paint chips and dust have been a constant problem in the apartment for years. At times small chips collect on radiators and on the floor, along with faint dust that could be lead paint.
“(My aunt) constantly had to sweep it up because she doesn’t want the kids to touch it,” Tatiana said.
On Friday, Martinez took her grandchildren to a clinic to be tested. She expects the results in about a week.
