NYCHA Violated Lead Paint Regulations For Years, Report Finds
arrow Mayor Bill de Blasio announces lead-based paint testing at 135,000 NYCHA apartments during a press conference at the Williamsburg Community Center in Brooklyn on Monday, April 15, 2019. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography
The leaders of a NYCHA unit charged with removing lead from public housing routinely falsified records meant to ensure the work was supervised, leaving an untold number of families at greater risk of lead poisoning, according to a new investigation.
The report released Thursday by the city s Department of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development followed a 2017 whistleblower complaint from an EPA-certified lead inspector. He alleged that the manager of NYCHA s Lead Unit, Ralph Iacono, repeatedly pressured him to sign his name to paperwork for lead abatement jobs that he did not supervise.