NYCHA Class Action

As a federally funded public housing authority and a landlord to approximately 600,000 public housing tenants in over 300 developments, NYCHA must comply with lead-based paint inspection requirements under both federal and local law:

• Under the New York City Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act (NYC Local Law 1 of 2004), NYCHA, as a landlord, must conduct annual visual inspections of apartments built before 1960 or between 1960 and 1978 where the landlord knows of the presence of lead-based paint and the tenant has reported the presence of a resident child under the age of six.
 
• Under HUD's Lead Safe Housing Rule, 24 C.F.R. 35, NYCHA, as a public housing authority, must conduct annual visual assessments of apartments where the possibility of lead-based paint has not been ruled out, regardless of the age of the occupants.

Across NYCHA developments, approximately 4,200 apartment units fall within the ambit of Local Law 1's inspection requirements, and 55,000 apartment units within that of the Lead Safe Housing Rule. Though required by law to inspect each and every one of these apartment units for the presence of lead, NYCHA has fallen catastrophically short of that mandate since at least 2012, when it stopped inspecting at-risk apartments while continuing to falsely assure HUD - and the public - that it remained in compliance with lead-based paint laws. Whenever children tested positive for an elevated blood lead level and the New York City Department of Health found lead-based paint in the unit, NYCHA contested the findings so it would not have to abate the lead hazard, and in some cases tasked untrained workers with completing repairs that may have worsened contamination. Thus, as a result of NYCHA's failure to inspect and abate residences and keep residents informed, hundreds of thousands of individuals residing in NYCHA housing were needlessly exposed to lead-based paint hazards.

Lead-based paint laws aim to protect children and adults from the well-known dangers of lead poisoning. By violating these laws, NYCHA endangered the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of residents, many of them children. The lead poisoning attorneys at Levy Konigsberg have filed a class action law suit on behalf of residents exposed to lead-based paint hazards while living in NYCHA housing. To find out more about this lawsuit and receive a free case consultation, please contact us at 1-800-483-0116 or by completing the form on this webpage.