WHAT: Community advocates, health professionals, and concerned citizens will gather tomorrow at Niagara Square to call on City of Buffalo officials to comply with the city’s Proactive Rental Inspections (PRI) Law enacted by the Buffalo Common Council in November 2020. Among other health and safety benefits, the law aimed to reduce childhood lead poisoning – a critical threat to children under 6 living in the city.

According to reports from the Department of Permit & Inspection Services, only 4,334 inspections took place through 2022 (the last date for which a report is available) – a wholly inadequate number to address the lead crisis facing our region. This means 88% of the 36,000 units covered under the law have not been inspected.

WHO:

• Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, Executive Director, Partnership for Public Good
• Rev. George F. Nicholas, CEO, Buffalo Center for Health Equity
• Breana Hargrave, Program Coordinator, LEAD 716
• Janayia Capers, Organizer for Housing Justice, PUSH Buffalo
   

WHEN: Tuesday, February 13 at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: Niagara Square

WHY: Every year, over 200 children are poisoned by lead in the City of Buffalo – the vast majority of whom live in rental units covered under PRI. Children living in neighborhoods with predominantly residents of color are twelve times as likely to be poisoned than children living in predominantly white neighborhoods. Unless effective primary prevention measures in rental housing are taken by the City of Buffalo, rates of childhood lead poisoning will not substantially decrease from the present unacceptable levels, and the city will continue to fail to meet its obligation to ensure safe and habitable rental housing.