Earlier this year, Cleveland City Hall said it would refocus its attention and enforce the landmark 2019 lead law. The law requires landlords to clean up properties and earn a lead-safe designation.
The city appeared to step up its efforts after Signal Cleveland’s three-part series examining the city’s failed efforts to enforce the law. The story, which was published in May, chronicled one family’s struggle to get housing assistance under the law.
The city reassigned its lead czar, Karen Dettmer, to the city’s building and housing department to strengthen its lead safe enforcement.
In September, the city began prosecuting landlords who previously ignored lead hazards that posed a risk of poisoning children. The city filed criminal charges in Cleveland Housing Court against 50 landlords who ignored previous city orders to clean up their properties. It was the first time in recent years that the city had taken such legal action.
Having their day in court
To date, the city has prosecuted more than 130 landlords in housing court, a city spokesperson told Signal Cleveland via email.
Lead inspectors from the city’s health department, using lead hazard control orders, have designated hundreds of homes as unsafe for pregnant women and children.
The city is also trying to keep landlords from selling homes that are not lead safe. To do this, the city is filing paperwork, or an affidavit, with Cuyahoga County. The paperwork alerts future homebuyers that a property has unaddressed hazards. The paperwork shows up during a title search. As of Dec. 15, 2023, the city had filed 499 affidavits on properties.
A city spokesperson said it plans to continue to aggressively enforce lead safe compliance, hold property owners accountable and assist residents in making their properties safe.
Next year, the city hopes to pass what it calls Residents First legislation, a new set of laws to make it easier to enforce housing and lead-safe codes. The proposed legislation, which was introduced at the request of the city’s building and housing department, would allow the city to issue civil fines against landlords rather than seek criminal charges against them, a city spokesperson said.
