[MassHistPres] Lead paint program

[Ralph Slate]

I was wondering if someone can answer a question about Massachusetts 
"Get the Lead Out" program.

We had a homeowner who was under a court order to fix the exterior of 
his property -- badly peeling paint, etc. Due to the court order, he 
thus qualified for the Get the Lead Out program -- a 0% loan, payment of 
which is deferred until he sells or refinances the house. The homeowner 
met the income eligibility. The loan amount is up to $35,000 for a 
two-family house.

The property in question is an owner-occupied two family house. The 
owner lives on the first floor. He has no children. He rents out the 
second floor.

The owner told us that in order to get this loan, he must delead his 
entire house. The website for the Get the Lead Out program says a 
"Certificate of Compliance" must be received when the deleading work is 
completed in order to comply with the program.

My question is, in order to get the Certificate of Compliance, must the 
entire house be deleaded? For example, if the owner lives on the first 
floor with no children, does he have to delead it? And if the third 
floor is not rented, does that need to be deleaded too?

This is an issue because the owner claims that the $35,000 does not give 
him financial room to get proper replacement windows, and that abating 
the original windows via some other method will also put him over the 
$35,000 limit. He claims that he simply cannot afford anything more than 
cheap white vinyl windows with grids between the glass. He claims that 
he is not able to get a loan to cover the approximately $2,500 
additional that it would take to do brown vinyl windows with exterior 
grids, which would not be as inappropriate as the white vinyl with grids 
between the glass.

If that is true, then if the SHC denies the application, this owner will 
not be able to get the loan, and will not be able to meet his court 
order to rehabilitate the exterior of the property. If the SHC accepts 
the application, there will be a serious detriment to the district.

The court order does not specify that the windows need to be replaced -- 
it's just that in order to get the money to delead the exterior, he 
needs the Certificate of Compliance, and to get the certificate the 
windows must be addressed in some way.


Thanks,

Ralph Slate
Springfield Historical Commisssion