HUD Inspector General Finds Multifamily Program Lacks Policies and Procedures to Ensure Owners Report and Address Elevated Blood Lead Levels

By Ed Gramlich, NLIHC Senior Advisor 

The HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Memorandum on May 30 concluding that HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs (Multifamily) needs to better track elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) in properties assisted by Multifamily programs (primarily the Project-Based Rental Assistance, PBRA, program). The OIG found that Multifamily has no internal policy specifying how staff should oversee and manage reports of children under the age of six with potential or confirmed EBLL at private properties assisted by a Multifamily program. OIG also observed that Multifamily’s property management information system was not designed to track reported EBLLs or property owners’ timely actions to mitigate lead hazards. The Memorandum provides an overview of Multifamily-assisted project owners’ responsibilities in response to a child suspected of having EBLL. 

In 1971, Congress passed the “Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act” prohibiting the use of lead-based paint in residential housing constructed, rehabilitated, or assisted by the federal government and setting abatement standards for lead-based paint. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a ban on paint containing lead that took effect in 1978. Congress passed the “Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992” calling for implementation of a program to evaluate lead-based paint hazards in the nation’s housing stock and reduction of the threat of childhood lead poisoning in housing owned, assisted, or transferred by the federal government. HUD implementing regulations are at 24 CFR part 35. HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) estimates there are 276,262 children under age six living in the 1.4 million units assisted by the PBRA program, and that 636,733 of the 1.4 million units were built before 1978. 

The drastically reduced HUD website no longer has a webpage devoted to healthy housing. However, a separate website, HUD Exchange, does have a link to Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Programs, which in turn links to a Lead Safe Housing Rule (LSHR) Toolkit. 

Read the OIG Memorandum at: https://tinyurl.com/2vjnsfzu 

More information about lead-based hazards is on page 6-1 of NLIHC’s 2025 Advocates’ Guide.