In a city with hundreds of children poisoned by lead paint each year, Onondaga County is struggling to spend millions of federal dollars available to fight the problem.
County Executive Ryan McMahon, on Tuesday, announced the county would direct more of its own dollars to replace windows and doors in Syracuse homes found to have heavy lead paint.
Among other roadblocks, McMahon said requirements by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are too restrictive to spend the money fast enough. In 2018, the federal government awarded $5.6 million to work on 210 units.
The county has spent about half of the money. HUD has granted a one-year extension. The county will have to spend the rest of the money by June, said Martin Skahen, director of the county’s Community Development office.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer fought for the funding after a Syracuse.com report showed at least 600 children had been poisoned by lead paint in one year.
McMahon called Tuesday’s news conference on lead paint a week after a Syracuse.com story again reported the stories of children poisoned by lead paint.
An alarming 11% of kids tested for lead in 2022 had elevated blood levels. That is 458 new cases added to the thousands of kids already poisoned in the city. Many children are not tested at all.
Governments have improved their practices in recent years, but it is not nearly enough to change the lives of the thousands of kids who play, eat and sleep within reach of old peeling paint.
Even after thousands of Syracuse kids have been poisoned, the system still takes too long and relies too heavily on kids getting sick to trigger action.
McMahon said there are several reasons the county needs more flexible funding to fight the problem: HUD requires the money to be spent in homes with children. There are income limits, up to $74,650 for a family of four. The median household income in Syracuse is about $38,900.
He said, for example, the county would like to repair homes where families care…
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