City Hall has confirmed a Free Press report that it has failed to hire a qualified trainer to offer mandatory classes for small contractors seeking to compete to remove poisonous lead paint from Richmond residences.

The confirmation came from Douglas Dunlap, interim deputy chief administrative officer for economic development and planning.

He provided the confirmation in a Jan. 10 response to a Free Press query concerning the lack of the free training classes for contractors that the city is required to offer as part of a federal grant it has received.

He stated that the city “is committed” to holding the classes, but has held off, in part, because it has too few homes where owners and tenants qualify for help or are willing to participate.

The Free Press reported in the Dec. 27-29 edition that owners of small construction companies owned by African-Americans alleged the lack of certification is shutting them out of work to remove and contain lead paint in homes and apartments built before 1978 when lead paint was banned.

These are homes that the Richmond City Health District has verified as occupied by pregnant women or children whom testing has shown to have elevated levels of the toxic, potentially brain-damaging metal in their blood due to dust and peeling paint.

The city was awarded a $2.7 million federal grant that became active in March 2018 to contain and remove lead paint from at least 150 homes by March 2020. The city promised to do at least 50 homes a year, but is falling far short, Mr. Dunlap said.

In his response, Mr. Dunlap noted that the city is planning to advertise for a training company to enable up to 40 Richmond area contractors to gain state certification and compete for contracts.

“The administration is committed to offering the training classes and anticipates that they may be scheduled for late February or soon after,” he stated.

However, Mr. Dunlap and Daniel Mouer, the city’s lead official on the lead grant, wouldn’t offer any information on when the city would issue a request for qualifications to start the process.

To date, project:Homes, the project manager the city has hired to manage the remediation work and issue contracts, has awarded just eight contracts for lead abatement in the first 10 months of the grant. Project:Homes also has limited contract awards to three companies that already have state certification for lead paint removal.

To date, project:Homes “has chosen not to add” other companies because it has such a small volume of requests for the work, Mr. Dunlap stated.

He acknowledged that the city and its project manager are struggling to find owners and tenants who will allow required lead inspections and go through the process to authorize the city to undertake the needed work.

“This is a voluntary remediation program,” Mr. Dunlap stated, adding that tenants who meet income eligibility still need permission from their landlords to allow grant-funded work to take place.

He stated that tenants often will not provide required income information or contact their landlord, possibly out of concern for landlord retaliation. In some households, residents earn too much money and exceed income limits for having grant work done, Mr. Dunlap continued, while some property owners reject grant funding because it could block them from raising rents for three years.

As a result, the city and its grant partners “are challenged” in trying to get the word out above the availability of grant funds for lead remediation, Mr. Dunlap continued.

“The city, the Health District and project:Homes have all been creative and active (in seeking) to drum up awareness of the program and to recruit participants. But so far, our efforts have not generated sufficient responses and participation to meet the benchmark of remediating 50 homes per year,” he stated.

Mr. Dunlap urged Richmond residents to call Mr. Mouer at the city, (804) 646-7025; the City Health District, (804) 205-3726; or project:Homes, (804) 233-2827, to begin the process of getting lead paint removed.