HUD, EPA, DOJ, STATE OF CALIFORNIA ANNOUNCE JOINT SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT WITH CALIFORNIA LANDLORD
Linder & Associates ensures more than 500 apartments will be "lead safe"

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, and the California Attorney General's Office today announced a joint settlement agreement with Linder & Associates, a Los Angeles-based property management company who the government alleges failed to inform tenants that their homes may contain potentially dangerous levels of lead.

The settlement agreement ensures that more than 500 residential units located in Los Angeles, Victorville, North Hills and Inglewood will be lead safe. Of those residential units, 331 units have been tested and found to be free of lead-based paint or have been demolished. An additional 275 units will be maintained or rendered lead safe, through methods such as window replacement and lead-based paint hazard abatement. This includes studio units containing children age six and under even though studio units are not covered by the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 (Residential Lead Act) (see attached list of properties).

In addition to paying substantial funds to replace the windows and make units lead safe, the company will pay a civil fine and costs of $10,000, will notify tenants of any lead hazards, and will comply with the regulations implementing the Residential Lead Act (known as the Lead Disclosure Rule) in the future. Linder & Associates was cooperative and responsive throughout the settlement and is dedicated to making the properties it manages lead safe for tenants.

"Every landlord has a legal obligation to make sure families understand whether their home may potentially harm their children," said HUD Deputy Secretary Roy A. Bernardi. "Today's settlement demonstrates the progress we can make toward eliminating childhood lead poisoning by collaborating with local, state, and federal enforcement authorities."

"The EPA and HUD are responsible for ensuring that renters and buyers receive adequate information to protect children from potential lead-based paint hazards," said Enrique Manzanilla, the EPA's director for the Communities and Ecosystems Division for the Pacific Southwest Region. "We hope today's enforcement action reminds all landlords and all home sellers that they have a responsibility to warn tenants and buyers that their homes may contain dangerous levels of lead."

After the settlement agreement was filed today, Acting United States Attorney George S. Cardona said, "We are pleased we were able to work with property managers who affirmatively want to make the units they lease safer for their tenants. We hope other landlords and property owners will take similar positive steps to ensure housing under their management is lead safe or lead-free."

The settlement announced today is the fifth such judicial consent decree or administrative agreement in Los Angeles among HUD, EPA, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of California. Nearly 11,600 rental units in Los Angeles have been or will be made lead safe for tenants by landlords and management companies found to be in violation of the Residential Lead Act. Moreover, the landlords and management companies involved in these five settlements have paid civil fines totaling $91,000, provided more than $60,000 for local children's health projects, and paid more than $11 million to eliminate or reduce lead hazards.

Background

The Residential Lead Act is one of the primary federal enforcement tools to prevent lead poisoning in young children. The Lead Disclosure Rule requires home sellers and landlords of housing built before 1978 to disclose to purchasers and tenants knowledge of lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards using a disclosure form, signed by both parties, attached to the sales contract or lease containing the required lead warning statement, provide any available records or reports, and provide an EPA-approved "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home" pamphlet. Sellers must also provide purchasers with an opportunity to conduct a lead-based paint inspection and/or risk assessment at the purchaser's expense.

Health Effects of Lead-Based Paint

Lead exposure causes reduced IQ, learning disabilities, developmental delays, reduced height, poorer hearing, and a host of other health problems in young children. Many of these effects are thought to be irreversible. In later years, lead-poisoned children are much more likely to drop out of school, become juvenile delinquents and engage in criminal and other anti-social behavior. As reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that even at low levels, lead exposure in children can significantly impact IQ and even delay puberty in young girls.

At higher levels, lead can damage a child's kidneys and central nervous system and cause anemia, coma, convulsions and even death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 310,000 of the nation's 20 million children under the age of six have blood lead levels high enough to impair their ability to think, concentrate and learn.

Eliminating lead-based paint hazards in older low-income housing is essential if childhood lead poisoning is to be eradicated. According to CDC estimates, the percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels has been cut by two-thirds since the early 1990's, although the prevalence of childhood lead poisoning in low-income, older housing without federal assistance remains high. HUD estimates that the number of houses with lead paint has declined from 64 million in 1990 to 38 million in 2000. About 24 million homes still have significant lead-based paint hazards.

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