Over $4.7M in lead hazard control funding awarded to the City of Erie

The City of Erie will be receiving its most significant lead hazard control funding award to date.

Just over $4.7 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will be used to remediate and enhance an additional 145 housing units.

This money will allow the city’s Redevelopment Authority to stretch its program an extra 48 months into 2029.

“We are a high-risk jurisdiction and defined by HUD, that’s over 8,000 pre-1940s rental units within the City of Erie,” said Aaron Snippert, executive director, of Redevelopment Authority of the City of Erie. “Given that the 1930s, 40s and 50s were the highest prevalence of lead in the United States and certainly in Erie as a rust belt city, that’s where we need to focus our assistance.”

The authority has assisted approximately 1,500 homes, however, Snippert said they still have a long way to go.

He explained a large part of this grant will be outreach and education.

“A lot of people don’t understand. They think that they have to eat a paint chip to be poisoned and certainly, there’s a lot of other ways that you can your child can get lead poisoning,” he said.

“It doesn’t usually present like an illness, like if you see them vomiting or you know right away. It’s something that you notice sort of over time that they are having some delays or issues,” said Holly Cook, director of program administration, Redevelopment Authority of the City of Erie.

The Redevelopment Authority said lead poisoning is completely preventable if homeowners take a proactive approach.

“Getting their children tested. We don’t have a statewide testing mandate so a lot of times parents need to advocate and ask for this testing for their kids. The second thing they need to do is get their house tested,” Cook added.

Cook recommended applying for the program for anyone with an older home that potentially contains lead paint.

“Ideally, we’d like to get to these houses before we get a lead-poisoned kid,” she added.

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