Baltimore Loses Federal Lead Abatement Funding
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Millions of dollars lost, which might have saved children from lead paint poisoning.
Suzanne Collins explains Baltimore cannot apply for a new federal grant after reports of mismanagement.
When young children eat toxic paint chips, their brains can be damaged forever.
For years, Baltimore has been getting grants to test houses for lead paint, then seal it or remove it so children cannot become ill. But this year, the Federal Housing Agency won't give Baltimore any more money, saying last year's $4 million grant was mismanaged.
"It appears we've wasted money and lost opportunity for future money, which means we will potentially have more poisoned children going into the classroom who can't learn, more kids in the juvenile justice system," said Ruth Ann Norton, Coalition to End Lead Poisoning.
The 2010 grant required Baltimore to fix 364 dwellings and it only repaired 292. Norton says it would have been easy to find hundreds of homes for the program.
"It's a reflection of poor management, poor oversight. It's unacceptable. It's unacceptable when kids are put in harm's way because of poor management," Norton said.
Not serving enough needy people isn't the only problem. Officials say the city didn't keep financial records that the people who benefited from the program were financially eligible and some of the windows that were replaced didn't even have lead in them.
The council will hold a hearing about the problems with the health department grant.
"Sure, that's hopefully going to come out in the hearing. Could be human mistake. Obviously, people make mistakes. I don't think there was any misappropriation at this time, but that remains to be seen," said Councilman Robert Curran.
The mayor plans to transfer responsibility for lead abatement to the housing department, but 13 people at the health department will lose their jobs.
