Lead Paint in Housing: HUD Should Strengthen Grant Processes, Compliance Monitoring, and Performance Assessment
GAO-18-394
Published: Jun 19, 2018. Publicly Released: Jun 19, 2018.
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Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) lead grant and rental assistance programs have taken steps to address lead paint hazards, but opportunities exist for improvement. For example, in 2016, HUD began using new tools to monitor how public housing agencies comply with lead paint regulations. However, HUD could further improve efforts in the following areas:
- Lead grant programs. While its recent grant award processes incorporate statutory requirements on applicant eligibility and selection criteria, HUD has not fully documented or evaluated these processes. For example, HUD’s guidance is not sufficiently detailed to ensure consistent and appropriate grant award decisions. Better documentation and evaluation of HUD’s grant program processes could help ensure that lead grants reach areas at risk of lead paint hazards. Further, HUD has not developed specific time frames for using available local-level data to better identify areas of the country at risk for lead paint hazards, which could help HUD target its limited resources.
- Oversight. HUD does not have a plan to mitigate and address risks related to noncompliance with lead paint regulations by public housing agencies. We identified several limitations with HUD’s monitoring efforts, including reliance on public housing agencies’ self-certifying compliance with lead paint regulations and challenges identifying children with elevated blood lead levels. Additionally, HUD lacks detailed procedures for addressing noncompliance consistently and in a timely manner. Developing a plan and detailed procedures to address noncompliance with lead paint regulations could strengthen HUD’s oversight of public housing agencies.
- Inspections. The lead inspection standard for the Housing Choice Voucher program is less strict than that of the public housing program. By requesting and obtaining statutory authority to amend the standard for the voucher program, HUD would be positioned to take steps to better protect children in voucher units from lead exposure as indicated by analysis of benefits and costs.
- Performance assessment and reporting. HUD lacks comprehensive goals and performance measures for its lead reduction efforts. In addition, it has not complied with annual statutory reporting requirements, last reporting as required on its lead efforts in 1997. Without better performance assessment and reporting, HUD cannot fully assess the effectiveness of its lead efforts.
Examples of Homes with Lead Paint Hazards
Why GAO Did This Study
Lead paint in housing is the most common source of lead exposure for U.S. children. HUD awards grants to state and local governments to reduce lead paint hazards in housing and oversees compliance with lead paint regulations in its rental assistance programs. The 2017 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Joint Explanatory Statement, includes a provision that GAO review HUD’s efforts to address lead paint hazards. This report examines HUD’s efforts to (1) incorporate statutory requirements and other relevant federal standards in its lead grant programs, (2) monitor and enforce compliance with lead paint regulations in its rental assistance programs, (3) adopt federal health guidelines and environmental standards for its lead grant and rental assistance programs, and (4) measure and report on the performance of its lead efforts. GAO reviewed HUD documents and data related to its grant programs, compliance efforts, performance measures, and reporting. GAO also interviewed HUD staff and some grantees.
Recommendations
GAO makes nine recommendations to HUD including to improve lead grant program and compliance monitoring processes, request authority to amend its lead inspection standard in the voucher program, and take additional steps to report on progress. HUD generally agreed with eight of the recommendations. HUD disagreed that it should request authority to use a specific, stricter inspection standard. GAO revised this recommendation to allow HUD greater flexibility to amend its current inspection standard as indicated by analysis of the benefits and costs.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Director of HUD's Lead Office should ensure that the office more fully documents its processes for scoring and awarding lead grants and its rationale for award decisions. (Recommendation 1) |
Consistent with our recommendation, HUD's Lead Office updated its 2020 Application Review Guide to include criteria to score lead grant applications.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Director of HUD's Lead Office should ensure that the office periodically evaluates its processes for scoring and awarding lead grants. (Recommendation 2) |
Consistent with our recommendation, HUD's Lead Office met to review its processes for scoring and awarding lead grants and made changes to how lead grants were awarded. For example, HUD provided examples of how award decisions changed in 2019 and 2020 as a result of agency officials evaluating its award processes and make adjustments, as needed.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Director of HUD's Lead Office, in collaboration with the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), should set time frames for incorporating relevant data on lead paint hazard risks into the lead grant programs' processes. (Recommendation 3) |
As of November 2019, HUD's Lead Office and PD&R have taken steps to address this recommendation. For example, PD&R completed an analysis to determine high impact neighborhoods and high abatement needs jurisdictions. The analysis is referenced within HUD's fiscal year 2019 Notice of Funding Availability (released in June 2019) and available on HUD's website.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development |
Priority Rec.
The Director of HUD's Lead Office and the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) should collaborate to establish a plan to mitigate and address risks within HUD's lead paint compliance monitoring processes. (Recommendation 4) |
In September 2023, HUD issued guidance on roles and responsibilities when engaging with public housing agencies to help them comply with the Lead Safe Housing Rule. This guidance establishes a plan for monitoring public housing agencies' compliance with lead paint regulations and describes the roles and responsibilities within HUD for coordinating its oversight and engaging with public housing agencies. For example, the guidance notes that HUD staff will work directly with public housing agencies to resolve issues of non-compliance by responding to or escalating issues, directing them to available training and resources, and working with them to obtain sufficient documentation to close cases in the Lead Based Paint tracker promptly. The actions by HUD to issue this guidance which lays out an oversight and monitoring plan meet the intent of the recommendation.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development |
Priority Rec.
The Director of HUD's Lead Office and the Assistant Secretary for PIH should collaborate to develop and document procedures to ensure that HUD staff take consistent and timely steps to address issues of public housing agency noncompliance with lead paint regulations. (Recommendation 5) |
In September 2023, HUD issued guidance which established procedures to address noncompliance with lead paint regulations. For example, the procedures establish reasonable timelines for public housing agency responses and include steps for an escalation process and enforcement. The actions by HUD establish procedures for timely steps and enforcement meet the intent of the recommendation.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development |
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of HUD should request authority from Congress to amend the inspection standard to identify lead paint hazards in the Housing Choice Voucher program as indicated by analysis of health effects for children, the impact on landlord participation in the program, and other relevant factors. (Recommendation 6) |
HUD took steps broadly consistent with and in response to our recommendation. In April 2023, HUD published a Notice of Funding Opportunity for a Lead Risk Assessment Demonstration, which provides competitive grants for public housing agencies to evaluate lead paint hazards in Housing Choice Voucher units constructed before 1978 where children under the age of 6 reside or could reside through risk assessments and lead hazard screens. The results of this demonstration will inform HUD's decision whether to request new authority from Congress to amend inspection standards. In fiscal year 2022, HUD requested and funds were appropriated to test an alternative lead paint testing method in HUD's Housing Choice Voucher program.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Director of the Lead Office should develop performance goals and measures to cover the full range of HUD's lead efforts, including its efforts to ensure that housing units in its rental assistance programs are lead-safe. (Recommendation 7) |
As of October 2023, HUD officials had not provided additional information to show the agency has taken actions in response to this recommendation. In March 2021, HUD officials told us they still were coordinating internally to develop performance goals and measures that cover HUD's lead efforts. HUD officials noted efforts had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to monitor HUD's effort to implement this recommendation.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Director of the Lead Office, in conjunction with PD&R, should finalize plans and develop a time frame for evaluating the effectiveness of the Lead Safe Housing and Lead Disclosure Rules, including an evaluation of the long-term cost effectiveness of the lead remediation methods required by the Lead Safe Housing Rule. (Recommendation 8) |
In February 2022, HUD's Lead Office completed a contract competition and now has agreements in place with three firms to conduct analyses using the data obtained in the American Healthy Homes Survey II. HUD officials noted that the data obtained in the American Healthy Homes Survey II will help it to assess the effectiveness of lead hazard control requirements and monitoring activities (final report October 2021).
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | The Director of the Lead Office should complete statutory reporting requirements, including but not limited to its efforts to make housing lead-safe through its lead grant programs and rental-assistance programs, and make the report publicly available. (Recommendation 9) |
In February 2024, HUD officials told us that the Lead Office is preparing material for its statutory report to Congress on its efforts to make housing lead-safe through a range of activities, including its lead grant programs and its rental-assistance programs, and will make the report publicly available when it is sent to Congress. To date, HUD had issued one annual report to Congress in response to our recommendation. In August 2020, HUD issued an annual report to Congress in response to their statutory reporting requirements. In order to fully implement this recommendation, HUD needs to consistently issue reports to Congress and make them publicly available.
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BloodBuilding inspectionCompliance oversightGrant programsHousingHousing assistanceHousing programsLaws and regulationsLead poisoningLead-based paint hazardsPerformance measurementPublic housingReporting requirements