South Bend denied grant to remove lead in homes

SOUTH BEND — South Bend and St. Joseph County will not receive a multi-million dollar grant to remove lead from homes of children poisoned by the toxic metal here.

In recent years, they had received millions of dollars from the federal government to remove lead paint hazards in hundreds of old homes.

Though the grant funding was lost last year, officials had hoped to get it back. But those hopes were recently dashed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD awarded grants for its Lead Hazard Control program, and no Indiana communities were on the list, said Chuck McMannis, who works for the South Bend Housing Authority and directed its lead program.

In light of South Bend's problem with lead-poisoned children, McMannis said he was surprised the housing authority's application was rejected. The local problem received a lot of media coverage, and The Tribune has published several stories about it.

"It was actually national news for us, Gary and Fort Wayne," McMannis said. "I sent links to stories in our application so they could see we were taking it seriously. It's a big issue in Indiana — not just in South Bend."

Data released by the state earlier this year show that an unusually high number of children under age 7 in South Bend's near northwest side had high blood lead levels from 2005 through 2015. That spurred local health officials to develop a plan to get more kids tested and seek funding to combat the problem with lead, which can damage the developing brains of kids.

Indiana is part of HUD's Region 5, which also includes Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio. Other parts of the country received more funding, McMannis said.

"I think in our whole region, there were only four grants. And two of them went to Ohio," he said.

When asked why the the area's grant application was rejected, Warren Friedman, a senior advisor in HUD's lead office, said, "Other applicants gave applications that indicated they had a stronger approach to address the problem."

There was a silver lining, however, as Indiana received a $3 million grant from HUD's Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration program.

The state will soon divide that money between six communities: South Bend, Fort Wayne, Gary, East Chicago, Evansville and Indianapolis. The money, to be awarded based on need, will be used to abate lead hazards in a total of 240 housing units across the communities.

Meanwhile, McMannis said that as part of the rejected grant application, the city, county and community organizations had agreed to pitch in matching funds and in-kind services that totaled more than $1 million.

The grant would have helped repair lead hazards in homes across the county that were built before 1978, when the federal government banned lead-based household paint.

The goal would have been to do about 150 projects over a three-year period, McMannis said. For homeowners and landlords, the program would have paid 85 percent of repair costs and up to $12,500.

Dale Deardorff, president of the St. Joseph County Board of Health, said that the rejection of the grant application is a reminder that communities can't always rely on the federal government.

"We need to kind of refocus what our efforts will be to educate the community on what they can do to make their housing lead-safe," he said.

Andre Stoner, neighborhood networker for Near Northwest Neighborhood Inc., said that the rejection of the grant application is "quite disappointing."

He said the neighborhood group will work with the housing authority to understand "how we can work together in the future to have even more support from local, regional and state political leaders to leverage these kind of funds."

Local efforts are underway to combat South Bend's lead problem. Last month, a group of students and faculty from the University of Notre Dame started testing homes in the city for lead in paint, water and soil.

Five homes have been tested so far, and the group is looking for more people to sign up for the grant-funded research project, said Heidi Beidinger-Burnett, who works for Notre Dame and is a member of the county Board of Health.

The county health department only has enough employees to provide follow-up services, such as developing care plans for children whose blood lead levels are at 10 micrograms per deciliter or above.

That's why the Notre Dame group is doing testing in homes for children whose blood lead levels are between 3.5 and 10 micrograms per deciliter.

Five micrograms per deciliter is the blood lead level considered elevated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But earlier this year, a federal advisory panel recommended the CDC to lower the elevated level to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. The CDC is expected to decide later this year whether to approve the recommended change.

Beidinger-Burnett hopes the county health department will find a way to get enough personnel to start serving children with blood lead levels as low as 5 micrograms per deciliter.

"The powers that be in St. Joseph County have not allocated the proper resources," she said, "for us to do what needs to be done."

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