Lead-Based Paint Poisoning

Children with elevated blood lead levels who live in public housing have not been adequately protected from further poisoning from lead-based paint because the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and local housing authorities have not complied with all the requirements of a 1988 law. The six public housing authorities (PHAs) GAO reviewed often did not comply with HUD regulations for testing these children's homes or relied on testing procedures that may not have fully disclosed the presence of lead-based paint. In only one of the 50 cases GAO reviewed did PHAs comply with emergency abatement or relocation regulations for children with elevated blood lead levels. Many children ended up being exposed to lead-based paint for more than a year after PHAs learned of their diagnoses. A lack of HUD oversight, coupled with PHAs' noncompliance, has left these children vulnerable to lead poisoning and may produce lawsuits that are costly to the federal government. Moreover, HUD regulations do not require either notifying other tenants about lead-based paint dangers or testing other units in buildings where diagnosed children live. Overall, HUD has not complied with all the law's requirements aimed at abating lead-based paint hazards from public housing and has not ensured that PHAs comply with its testing, abatement, and notification requirements.

GAO found that: (1) children with elevated blood levels (EBL) who live in public housing containing lead-based paint hazards are not adequately protected from lead poisoning; (2) PHA often do not comply with federal EBL testing requirements and rely on local testing that does not meet HUD requirements; (3) HUD regulatory requirements for EBL children are too narrowly focused; (4) HUD does not ensure PHA compliance with emergency regulations, adequately protect other children living in hazardous buildings, test other units in an EBL child's building, or warn neighboring residents of potential hazards; (5) PHA often do not meet abatement or relocation requirements for EBL children to comply with HUD requirements; (6) HUD progress in meeting legislative requirements is limited because it has not determined the extent of lead-based paint in public housing and the costs of abatement, completed a comprehensive plan or required demonstration programs, or enforced other related legislative requirements; and (7) although PHA have made limited progress in meeting lead-based paint testing requirements, most PHA abatement efforts are incomplete.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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