Opponents of an Ohio House bill related to lead abatement say it could make compliance more burdensome for landlords and property owners who are working to meet lead safe requirements in Cleveland.
House Bill 280 would expand the Ohio Lead Abatement Tax Credit by making it refundable to all property owners, not just the few who qualify now, according to Zak Burkons of PBFree Ohio, a Cleveland-based lead assessment company. Burkons worked with a lobbyist to write and find sponsors in the Ohio House for HB 280.
A refundable credit can result in a cash refund, and HB 280 would allow the owner to assign the refund to a licensed lead professional, reducing or avoiding out-of-pocket costs for remediation.
The bill would also impose penalties on local governments with lead safe certification programs, like Cleveland, if applications for certification are not processed in 30 days. If the city has more than 50 applications per year not processed in the 30-day period, the city would be penalized. Governments that fail to meet the deadline could lose up to 10% of their state funding a year.
Small mom & pop landlords
Supporters and opponents of the bill submitted written testimony last month to the House’s Ways and Means Committee.
Burkons said the bill would bring more rental properties “into the fold” of compliance by allowing small landlords to apply for the tax credit, “giving them a compelling reason to comply.”
“The overwhelming majority of landlords are […] Mom & Pop companies with one or two rental units,” Burkons wrote. “These units compose the core of the affordable housing stock in this state. … The people who need the most encouragement to [become] compliant are lower income landlords and this will ensure the program benefits renters and property owners alike.”
But many advocates in Cleveland warn of unintended consequences.
What Cleveland officials, researchers, health advocates are saying
“Cities like Cleveland, where most of the housing stock was built before 1978 (the year lead paint was banned for residential use), have different needs than newer suburban communities,” said the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition in its testimony. HB 280 would create a “one size fits all approach,” the coalition said.
Andre P. White, advocacy chairperson for Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing (CLASH), spoke on behalf of the group opposing some elements of HB 280 because they say it would undermine the progress of Cleveland’s lead safe laws.
The group said the city is aware of its “faulty application process” for lead-safe certification and has worked to build up the Building and Housing Department to make the process smoother for landlords.
The city “has taken extraordinary steps” to help landlords and property owners correct mistakes in their applications, the group stated in written testimony.
In a March Lead Safe Advisory meeting, the city said it is working to get more landlords who own one to three units into compliance. But HB 280 would delay that progress, said Sally Martin O’Toole, Cleveland’s director of Building and Housing.
“Forcing cities to approve or deny applications within 30 days will likely result in more denials of applications as opposed to the collaboration that currently exists” to correct mistakes in the paperwork, O’Toole said. “Losing local government funds due to the processing times of lead safe certificates is punitive and will render local regulatory programs inoperable.
“In effect, this bill will prolong the lead poisoning crisis in Ohio by leaving local governments to either rubber stamp certificates or get out of the complex regulatory work required by the pervasiveness of lead in our housing stock, ” O’Toole continued.
Rob Fischer, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University, said the bill should include ways to build up the workforce of private, independent lead inspectors rather than forcing landlords to rely on government lead inspectors.
For landlords to get a lead safe certification, property owners have to work with third-party inspectors. In Cleveland, he said, one of the challenges to getting landlords to meet compliance is the small number of lead clearance technicians working to inspect homes.
“To achieve scale in testing and certification of properties at the local level, it is essential to have access to a large workforce of individuals with expertise in doing the work,” Fischer said in a written testimony.
Zachary Ravellini, senior housing rehabilitation specialist for the City of Cleveland Heights, testified that HB280 would eliminate his city’s ability to prosecute landlords for not following its lead safe ordinance.
“This ability to ‘stop the clock’ on prosecutions will result in poor outcomes for children, as meaningful enforcement of lead safe ordinances will be thwarted. Children in these homes would remain vulnerable to lead poisoning,” Ravellini wrote.
