(Andrea Januta/Reuters)District officials failed to spend $3 million in federal lead remediation grants, rendering the city ineligible for additional money and forcing D.C. to shut down a program to protect poor children from lead poisoning. The mismanagement of lead remediation dollars, first reported by the Washington City Paper, was a focus of D.C. Council members at an oversight hearing Friday. In 2015, the federal agency warned the city that it was failing to spend enough money and placed a $3.7 million grant on high-risk status. City officials said the applicants had a hard time pulling together the necessary paperwork to demonstrate eligibility. But the city also told HUD last summer that 121 units in multifamily buildings were awaiting lead remediation, after the federal grant expired.

Source: Washington Post March 01, 2019 21:08 UTC