A program that swooped in to provide a safety net for Cleveland residents displaced by lead hazards in their homes faces an uncertain future.
The City of Cleveland funded the pilot program beginning last May because it knew that parents of kids with lead poisoning often had to choose between a home that might be harming their child and homelessness. When homes are found to poison children, the city sometimes has to tell anyone living inside to vacate for their safety. Lead, often found in paint, can damage young children’s brains and disrupt their growth and development.
In the past year, the relocation program helped around 90 families find temporary or permanent housing, said Zack Cofer with Environmental Health Watch, the nonprofit operating the program.
But the money Cleveland provided must be spent by the end of June, since it comes from federal COVID recovery dollars. And the program’s leaders say no one has stepped up to fund it after that.
The coalition is requesting that Cleveland allow the program to keep spending dollars after June, since the federal deadline technically doesn’t expire until the end of the year. But the dollars are not infinite: $640,000 of the approximately $800,000 program had already been spent as of March.
If the program closes, “community members would be on their own, essentially, without resources provided to help them relocate,” said Ayonna Blue Donald, a member of the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition’s executive steering committee, the umbrella organization under which the relocation program operates.
Dr. David Margolius, the City of Cleveland’s public health director, said after the COVID money expires there’s no more money in the city’s budget this year for the program. He would like to see private funders step in to fill the gap. Continuing to provide residents with a safety net is “imperative” going forward, Margolius said.
Blue Donald said she is actively fundraising for the program but can’t share more details.
For residents who participated, the program’s expiration is a daunting prospect. Environmental Health Watch helped Emerald Glass move out of her rental home after her son tested for high levels of lead.
“Without this program, I probably would have still been in the house,” Glass said. “…I don’t have the funds to just up and move, or to relocate myself and my kids.”
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Relocation program assisted parents, kids – even pets into lead safe housing
Residents may rely on the program for a number of reasons. A chunk of them just need to stay in a hotel for a brief time while a contractor is fixing up their home to make it safe from lead. Without the program, Cofer said, construction to make the home safe may get delayed or not happen.
Other residents – many whose children already have high levels of lead poisoning – need to find another place to live long-term. That was the case for Glass.
In December, she found out her two-year-old son had high levels of lead in his blood. Glass paid for her rental with the assistance of a federal housing voucher, meaning it should’ve been safe. Legal Aid referred her to the relocation program. Six days before Christmas, the program moved Glass – who was seven months pregnant – and her three kids into an extended stay hotel.
A mountain of tasks piled up before Glass and her kids could leave the hotel. She had to wait for the city to complete a lead inspection, for the landlord to agree to break her lease and for the housing authority to allow the voucher to be spent at a new home. She had to pack up the items at her old house and hunt for a new one that would be lead safe. She had to transfer her utilities into her new home under her name, which was stymied by an old unpaid bill.
The process could’ve easily been overwhelming, even without a baby girl on the way. But Glass stuck with it – and workers on the relocation team stayed by her side. They advocated for Glass to the housing authority to let her move more quickly. They paid for storage pods where she could put her belongings while in the hotel. They paid the utility bill so it could transfer to her new home.
“They kept on saying, ‘Oh, don’t worry yourself. It’s OK, we got you covered,’” Glass said of the relocation assistance team. “So just that assurance made me feel a lot better.”
The relocation team’s job is to help residents adapt to whatever life throws their way, Cofer said. The funding was flexible enough to assist residents through a vast array of circumstances – from helping with security deposits to moving expenses to pet boarding.
“We’ve seen all sorts of pets: from dogs and cats, I think the obvious ones, to turtles to snakes to reptiles,” Cofer said. “I think somebody had a bearded dragon.”
Relocation program success shows community need
The program is picking up steam now that it’s one year old. Enrollment reached a peak in the cold month of December but nearly hit that again in March. The program is getting referrals from all over the community: the city, doctors, Legal Aid and community development corporations.
The program’s success is an indication of just how much need there is, Blue Donald said. Many families needed support that lasted months, longer than the program initially expected. Glass and her kids called the extended stay hotel home for about three months before they got the keys to their new house in mid-March. Glass ended up giving birth while her family lived in the hotel.
“There is a need for longer term housing,” Blue Donald said.
As she pitches to funders for phase two, Blue Donald said she’s revisiting an idea tossed around at the beginning of the program: leasing out handfuls of units across the city that would be available on a dime for residents when needed. It could bring hotel costs down and provide reliable housing for families who’d like to avoid extended stay hotels.
But the ultimate decision about the program’s future lies in the hands of funders, she said.
“It’s going to be really responsive to what our funders want to support,” Blue Donald said.
