From front left: siblings Adelisse, 6, Yadier, 3, Joseph, 5, and Gilberto, 8, play together as their mother Yadelis Lopez, back left, keeps an eye on them at their home in Rochester, N.Y., on June 23, 2017.
The family has rented in Rochester since Lopez moved to the city six years ago. Joseph, 5, tested positive for elevated levels of lead at one rental property, though the family has since moved to a house that was cleared by the city.
In 2005 the city of Rochester adopted legislation to lower the number of children exposed to lead in rental housing. Their law is the basis for Toledo's new lead ordinance, which requires rental buildings built before 1978 with up to four units and day-care centers to be certified “lead-safe.”
Children play outside a house with identified lead hazards in Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 16, 2017. The Board of Health had issued Orders of Eviction for nearly 90 homes, including this one, in Cuyahoga County. The owners of identified houses were noncompliant with lead abatement, a process triggered once a child staying at the residence tests positive for elevated lead levels. Often these properties are rentals with residents unaware or legally unable to comply with abatement orders.
"You're supposed to protect your kids and I didn't. I feel like this is my fault," LaToya Jenkins, 43, said of learning the home she rents in Toledo, Ohio, is contaminated with lead paint.
Jenkins spoke on Jan. 26, 2018, about her attempts to find a new place for her family to live, though she said that had proved difficult. Often landlords didn't want her as a tenant after finding out she knew about Toledo's new lead abatement law. In the meantime, Jenkins and her 2-year-old twins, Floyd Benion Jr., left, and Nadia, right, are trying to avoid any more lead exposure in their home. Floyd, who has Down Syndrome, tested positive for elevated levels of lead in June of 2017.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. Lose my home and stay in the street?" Larry Oates, 61, asked on May 16, 2017, of the vacate order he received from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department. "I'm just tired and I can't afford to fix this."
Oates said he absolutely thinks homes where children reside should be treated for lead, but that the health department's investigation at his house in Toledo was triggered by a child who was living there without his knowledge several years ago. At the time Oates says he was renting the property out, though now he resides there.
The child has long since moved away, and Oates said he was unaware he was considered in non-compliance with lead abatement. Now retired from Jeep, he’s is concerned about how he is going to pay for potential lead abatement and frustrated that he wasn't informed by the health department before they fixed a sign to his front door. He maintains that as an adult he isn't suffering any ill effects of lead.
Malik McClure, 9 , shows the scars he bears as the result of a full-body rash his mother Dequindre Winfrey, of Flint, said he and his four-year-old sister contracted because they drank tainted Flint municipal water. Malki's family attended a town hall meeting Feb. 6, 2016, at Foss Avenue Baptist Church in Flint, Mich., to speak with a delegation of state and federal elected officials. "It wasn't until my own hair started falling out that I connected it with the water," Dequindre Winfrey, Malik's mother, said.
Darryl Matiere Sr., an Air Force and Air National Guard veteran, emphatically denounces Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to fellow Flint resident Audrea Crawford, not pictured, after both came to one of the city's fire stations to pick up a case of bottled water on Jan. 20, 2016, in Flint, Mich. The pair said they felt no one had been held accountable for the mass lead poisoning.
Flint resident Audrea Crawford holds out her city water bill after stopping at a distribution site to pick up a case of bottled water Wednesday, January 20, 2016, in Flint, Mich. Crawford says her bill of $428.81, which was due on December 21, 2015, is far too high for water that cannot actually be used.
Albert Algerian, a Rochester Code Enforcement Officer, uses his phone light to check for flaking paint on a window during an inspection at a rental home in Rochester, N.Y., on June 22, 2017. A new Toledo law, based on Rochester's decade-old lead law, requires rental buildings built before 1978 with up to four units and day-care centers to be certified “lead-safe.”
Flaking paint in a windowsill, pictured on June 22, 2017, would be flagged as a potential lead hazard in a rental home in Rochester, N.Y. The city of Rochester inspects all rental homes for, among other things, potential lead hazards. Inspectors perform visual inspections and, in areas of the city designated high-risk for lead poisoning, also administer dust wipe tests. Flaking paint, dust, and soil around houses with wooden siding are common sources of lead exposure.
Angela Williams holds her daughter Angelina, 2, as she expresses her concerns about lead paint in her rental house in Lakewood, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 2017. The Board of Health has issued Orders of Eviction for nearly 90 in Cuyahoga County, including the home the Williams family rents. Many rental properties continue to be leased to new tenants despite the orders of eviction and lead abatement, often leaving new residents vulnerable to lead poisoning or homelessness if they are forced to leave the property suddenly.
"I'm really worried now," India Gaston, 15, said as she held up her 3-month-old son Ozzie Banks at their rental house in Toledo, Ohio, on May 3, 2017. Gaston said she and her parents, with whom she shares the rental house, had no idea they were supposed to vacate the property because of lead contamination. Though her niece had tested positive for lead when she was living at the property three years ago, India was under the impression that issue had been resolved.
Velma Rollins has kept records of her struggle with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. She has lived in her house off and on since childhood, and has raised children and grandchildren there. Now, her son owns the property and the pair have struggled to sort out the county Board of Health's ordered lead abatement, which was triggered after Rollins' grandson tested positive for elevated levels of lead. Their house was one of nearly 90 in Cuyahoga County that the Board of Health has issued Orders of Eviction after noncompliance with mandated lead abatement. Low-income owners often struggle to pay for the ordered abatement.
A Cleveland, Ohio, neighborhood is reflected from the porch of a house with a posted Order of Eviction on Aug. 15, 2017. The owner of the house was noncompliant with lead abatement ordered by the county health department — a process triggered once a child staying at the residence tests positive for elevated lead levels.
Jeremiah Slaughter, 5, left, plays on the front porch of his grandmother's house in East Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 16, 2017. His grandmother Brenda Slaughter, right, said her family was moving out of their rental property after nine years because their landlord hadn't complied with county-ordered lead abatement. Because lead is present in virtually all homes built before 1978 — when lead in paint was outlawed — many low-income families end up moving from one rental with lead hazards to another.
"It's a scary situation," Mesha Wallace said as she held her granddaughter Mariah Gaston, 3, at their home in South Toledo, Ohio, on May 9, 2017. Mariah was diagnosed with lead poisoning at the age of 1 while living with Wallace in the home they rent. Mariah was treated, and the family's landlord repainted the interior of the house. Wallace was alarmed to learn two years later that the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department had included her home on a list of houses unfit for human habitation due to lead contamination. With another grandchild, 3-month-old Ozzie, living in their home, Wallace said she had started working 60 hours a week in hopes of saving enough money to move. She is now having her three children and two grandchildren tested for elevated blood levels of lead.
Mariah Gaston, 3, played with the security door at her grandmother's house in South Toledo, Ohio. Mariah was diagnosed with lead poisoning at the age of 1 while living with her grandmother Mesha Wallace in the home the family continues to rent.