A Syracuse Housing Program, Freedom Commons, helps people coming out of prison to get education, employment, substance abuse help, and more, while offering safe, affordable housing. The program run by the Center for Community Alternatives is staffed in part by people who have served jail time themselves, and help residents keep from falling back into criminal habits that increase recidivism.
Lead paint applied to a porch, cracking and flaking off.
Some Syracuse neighborhoods that have the highest levels of lead poisoning are slowly being made safer. Jeff is a landlord who was able to utilize a Central New York Community Foundation program to help reduce the threat by replacing doors and windows for his tenants.
“That’s significant because windows, because they move, create friction, which can disturb the paint that the window casement are painted with, which in 90% of the homes in Syracuse can include lead paint and then release lead dust in the window casement that can be inhaled by children in the house, said Jeff.