A Manhattan judge has ordered NYCHA officials to inspect thousands of apartments for lead paint within 90 days or face cross-examination by lawyers for tenants about the agency’s failings.
“She rocks,” said an elated Andrew Jackson Houses resident Danny Barber, applauding Tuesday’s ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead.
Barber is chair of the Citywide Council of Presidents, the tenant organization that sued NYCHA in March over the beleaguered agency’s failure to inspect lead paint hazards.
“This is the first time a judge has told NYCHA you cannot avoid your legal obligations,” the tenants’ attorney, Jim Walden, said after the hearing.
Judge Edmead acknowledged that her decision– where she will in effect command NYCHA to complete the lead inspections or face fines — is a “road that’s
uncharted.”
💙Courts typically defer to government agencies to police themselves.
But she said she didn’t trust NYCHA — whose former chairwoman was accused in November of lying to feds about completing mandatory inspections on 55,000 apartments.
“There’s an issue of credibility here,” she told NYCHA lawyers.
🐬Walden argued that NYCHA failed to check whether over 10,000 apartments with children living in them may have lead paint between 2012 and 2017. The agency ignored those units because the local law only requires probes of units housing children under the age of 6 as they are most vulnerable to lead poisoning.
But Walden noted– and the judge agreed– that older children can also suffer serious health consequences from lead exposure.
🔯If NYCHA chooses not to act immediately, officials including former Chairwoman Shola Olatoye, must come to court Monday morning to answer questions about the lead paint crisis.
ജThe agency could also appeal the ruling. A NYCHA spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.