The City manages a 42-month $1,567,019 Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control grant from HUD which ends in March 2007. (The City has applied for another grant to continue funding, which HUD will announce by October 1, 2006). With this funding, the Community & Economic Development Office has developed the Burlington Lead Program and has accomplished the following:

• Reduced lead-based paint hazards in 64 low-income housing units housing children
• Performed risk assessments/lead-based paint inspections in 123 units
• Sponsored 215 community outreach events
• Conducted 19 Essential Maintenance Practices (EMPs) classes to educate 517 property owners and managers about keeping their properties in a lead-safe condition.

The Burlington Lead Program offers the following additional services for free to Burlington residents:

• Lead testing for all resident children under 6
• Home visits to educate tenants about sound cleaning techniques, recommended nutrition and steps to take to reduce lead paint hazards
• Technical assistance for property owners to help identify and contain lead paint hazards
• Use of special HEPA vacuums to help tenants properly clean their homes of lead paint hazards

The Burlington Lead Program is partnering with the Community Health Center of Burlington to test all children under age 6 and educate residents about lead poisoning and the services the City offers. This is accomplished through an aggressive door-to-door outreach and education campaign.

The City's nonprofit housing partners collaborate with the Burlington Lead Program to test the properties they rehabilitate for lead paint hazards and to mitigate lead paint hazards. All owners of multiple unit properties and contractors working on these properties are required to provide evidence that they have taken the Essential Maintenance Practices class to learn about the health effects of lead poisoning, requirements of Vermont’s lead law and lead safe work practices. They also need to provide evidence that they have undertaken EMP work on their rental units. CEDO and the Director of Code Enforcement are in the early stages of developing a local lead paint safety ordinance.

The City continues to undertake the following additional activities to address lead paint hazards in the City's housing units:

• For housing assisted with public funds from the City's Housing Initiatives Program, the Community & Economic Development Office (CEDO) requires a plan for mitigating lead paint hazards in cases where that housing is occupied by children under six years of age.
• CEDO requires all recipients of free exterior paint to participate in a lead paint safety training course offered free of charge by the Lead Program.

The 2001 HUD Lead Safe Housing Rule applies to federally subsidized housing and requires that any loose/deteriorating paint in a housing unit with a child age six years or under must be corrected by appropriately trained maintenance people, and that the unit must subsequently pass a clearance test. With the creation of the Burlington Lead Program, the City has ensured that this potentially serious hurdle for recruiting private landlords to participate in the Section 8 program is overcome. The availability of the Lead Program helps to prevent discrimination against families with young children - a group that already encounters great difficulty in a tight housing market.

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