We recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing require the Authority to maintain lead-based paint documentation for its properties in a manner that it is readily available for review by HUD and the Authority’s tenants if requested.
Publication Report
2023-CH-1001 | March 22, 2023
The Philadelphia Housing Authority Needs To Improve Oversight Of Lead-Based Paint In Its Public Housing
We audited the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s (Authority) management of lead‐based paint in its public housing program based on our assessment of the risks of lead‐based paint in public housing agencies’ (PHA) housing developments. The risk factors… moreRelated Recommendations
Public and Indian Housing
We recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing require the Authority to establish and implement procedures and controls to ensure that lead-based paint visual assessments are performed within the required timeframe.
We recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing require the Authority to implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that lead-based paint hazard reduction work is performed within the required timeframe and that all identified hazards are abated or treated with interim controls.
We recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing require the Authority to perform a search for historical lead based paint documentation and if any documents are found, compare the results from the historical documents with the results of the recent testing to identify any potential issues or inconsistencies and maintain all lead-based paint documentation related to the Authority’s properties according to HUD’s requirements.
We recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing require the Authority to Implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that accurate lead disclosures are provided to current and prospective tenants.
We recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing require the Authority to implement adequate controls to ensure that contracted inspectors’ deliverables comply with HUD’s and EPA’s requirements.
We also recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing work in conjunction with HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes to provide training to the Authority’s staff involved with managing lead-based paint and technical assistance in developing and implementing new procedures and controls.
We also recommend that the Director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Housing work in conjunction with HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes to assess the quality of the lead-based paint inspections and risk assessments performed by the Authority’s contractors to determine whether they are sufficient to fulfill HUD’s requirements.