A program that paid Cleveland’s landlords to certify their rentals as safe from lead poisoning is winding down
A home that was later demolished in Slavic Village in April 2014 because or lead hazards in the home.CLEVELAND, Ohio — A program that paid Cleveland’s landlords to certify their rentals as safe from lead poisoning is winding down after distributing millions since 2020.
The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition has paid landlords anywhere from $750 to $1,000 per unit if they followed the city’s rules meant to protect children from lead poisoning. But the organization will stop accepting new applications on Feb. 3, as it sunsets the program. The incentive was always meant to be temporary, explained Ayonna Blue Donald, who helps lead the coalition’s work. By the time the program officially ends in June, the organization expects to have spent $8.9 million on these incentives. The incentives were just part of a public-private partnership that launched after Cleveland’s 2019 lead-safe law was passed. New rules require any rental built before 1978 to be inspected for lead hazards and deemed safe before it can be legally offered for lease. At the time, city leaders and housing advocates agreed that policy alone wouldn’t stop lead poisoning. Together, they created the coalition and went forward with a plan to spend $92 million by 2027’s end on a variety of efforts to eradicate Cleveland’s lead crisis. That included dollars for a variety of tasks, including paying contractors to do lead abatement, screening children for lead, awareness campaigns and cleaning childcare centers. The incentives for lead safe certificates, administered by Environmental Health Watch, quickly became popular. Its initial $5 million budget was exhausted, and Cleveland allocated more COVID-era stimulus dollars toward the program. Through December the Coalition paid more than 7,600 incentives to 1,100 property owners. Rules capped landlords at 50 units, and only so many per ZIP code. Blue Donald, formerly Cleveland’s Building and Housing Director, said public officials in 2019 did not want to give landlords an unfunded mandate. The incentives were created to encourage landlords to comply, with the hope that Cleveland’s new requirements would gain traction in the community. While the incentives were a simple way to spend money towards fixing lead hazards, some advocates have always questioned their effectiveness. Inspections can cost anywhere from $350 to $700, explained Scott Kroehle, co-chair of the Lead Safety Advisory Board. A relatively safe property can complete its inspection and collect the reward. But there’s an unknown number of properties that need major remediation that still don’t comply with Cleveland’s rules. For example, many homes in Cleveland might be worth $70,000 but need $40,000+ of remediation. “There’s a concern that, to date, the program has really been skimming the least risky properties off the top of the pile,” Kroehle said. “If we’re trying to reduce childhood lead poisoning we need to be abating hazards.” Dr. David Margolius, Cleveland’s public health director, said the incentives were a needed first step. “It was the carrot,” Margolius said. “It was meant to be a kind of injection into the system to get people to do something they’ve never done before.” As 2026 begins, Cleveland now has data showing how its lead-safe efforts launched in 2019 are playing out. Despite the new rules, the percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels did not change from 2019 to 2023. Mayor Justin Bibb, through an executive order issued in October 2024, made the requirements for rentals stricter, saying the existing rules were not enough to protect children. Cleveland has since released new data that shows the percentage of kids testing positive for lead poisoning from 18.1% in 2023 to 16.8% in 2024 and to 15.8% in October. More than 28,000 rental units have gone through the process of obtaining a lead-safe certificate, and Margolius said the number of certified homes continues to increase. Surveys estimate, however, that Cleveland has anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000 rental units.Legislation passed in 2024 allowed inspectors to issue $200 tickets, and last year the city issued about 9,000 of them — including to unregistered rentals and units without lead-safe certificates. Margolius acknowledged that losing the incentives will not be easy for some property owners or for lead inspectors, who often marketed the incentives to landlords. He said city officials are considering changes to the 2019 law, one of which would create a path for rentals to be permanently deemed safe once they went through enough scrutiny and, if needed, abatement. Margolius said that would stop the need for landlords to recertify every few years. Today units can be deemed safe for either two or 20 years. But Margolius said the coalition’s limited dollars are best spent directly on cleaning lead from homes. The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition has allocated $47 million to the grants aimed at lead abatement. The organization has stopped accepting new grant applications and continues to work through a backlog of more than 1,000 property owners, Blue Donald said. Through December 2025, 492 units have been remediated through the organization’s grants. Coordination between contractors, property owners and third-party administrators has slowed how quickly both the nonprofit and city can spend dollars on home repairs. Blue Donald said the goal remains to spend the entire $92 million by the end of 2027, even as some programs wind down. Spencer Wells, a spokesman for the Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing, said the advocacy group hopes that more private funds can be found to address lead once the coalition’s initial $92 million is spent. Sean McDonnell covers Cleveland City Hall for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Prior to this role he covered the business beat. His focus, whether reporting on city government or the economy, is to write...
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