A Buffalo family struggled to make ends meet – and then things got worse

Christopher Mount bends over a spiral notebook at his kitchen table, scratching at a blank page titled “Bills.”

Every month, it’s the same story: the same list, the same math. And after minutes of summing, the same shortages.

You could cast as far back as Mount’s childhood to work out how he wound up at this table. The 39-year-old Buffalo man and his wife, Bethany, both inherited poverty from their parents.

But when the Mounts reflect on where their story went wrong, they return most often to the apartment they rented in Buffalo’s Seneca-Cazenovia neighborhood in 2019. Within months of moving in, all four of the couple’s children tested positive for lead exposure and Christopher began suffering seizures that left him dazed, black-eyed and bloody.

Like tens of thousands of older homes across the city, that apartment contained toxic lead-based paint that flaked off its interior window sills and walls. Since at least the early 1990s, Buffalo has ranked among the nation’s worst cities for lead exposure – a function of its aging housing stock, persistent failure of leaders to prioritize safe and affordable housing and prospects that a serious illness can make hard times seem nearly impossible.

“There are ripple effects,” said Bethany, 41, of living in a home contaminated with lead. Christopher lost his job. The bills piled up. Every month now, it’s the same story of scrimping, the same grind.

Experts say lead exposure affects thousands of families in Western New York, though it can manifest in different ways. Children are most vulnerable because they play on floors and put their hands in their mouths, and their brains are still developing.

Nearly 500 Erie County children tested positive for elevated blood lead levels in 2020, according to the state Department of Health. Some of those children go on to develop neurological issues, including learning disabilities or impulse control, which the Mounts’ youngest…