This study will examine a local housing inspection law put into place in Rochester, New York in 2006, and will look as well at laws in several other cities, to see if and how local legislation can be used as a tool to more effectively to fill the gap left between state and federal laws removing paint from gasoline and from the paint used in homes were put in place decades ago.
Overall, they have been very effective in reducing the number children who are poisoned by lead. But there are still numerous “hot spots” where children (particularly low-income, minority children living in older neighborhoods) continue to be poisoned by lead at alarming levels. Those children simply have not been reached by the protections of the state and federal laws. In order to find out whether local laws can be an effective tool to reach these children this study will take a close look at a local housing inspection law put into place in Rochester, New York in 2006, and will look as well at laws in several other cities. The results of the study will be available to lawmakers, community advocates, policy analysts and scholars interested in evaluating or enacting local laws in their own communities.