The heavy burden of lead, Baltimore row homes are plagued, how one resident has dealt with it

#Baltimore #CharmCity #LeadPoisoning

Tony Loffredo explains he purchases properties, unseen at auction, for pennies on the dollar. But purchasing homes that are over 100 years old without actually seeing them can be a real gamble. One of the biggest problems that is ran into and homes that old is lead. It's almost guaranteed there's some level of lead within the home. "Sometimes you get in a property you purchased and you realize you are in over your head and the best thing to do is just completely gut the whole property. This apartment would be pure squalor to move somebody in. That's just a huge lead paint bubble cesspool of disease," said Loffredo.

Lindsay Lewis reflected on the old row home he grew up in on North Ave at Mount Ave. "We lived in that spot from 1987 to 1998. Eleven long years. Pops worked tried to hold the fam together, no assistance, no street hustler., he worked three jobs. There was seven of us in that old ass row house. It was wallpaper over paint over wallpaper over paint in the living room and it just peeled off. The paint chips tasted sweet big ass fruit roll up on the wall. My bedroom the corner It's just fell off that wall on my bed, these lil flakes. All of us has something wrong with us from that lead." Lindsay known as "Lil L Luxury" on the streets lived in Sandtown- Winchester his whole child hood, teenage life. Born in 1979, spent his very small infant childhood years in a small two bedroom apartment at the corner of Presstman and Fulton, was actually a nice spot but too small. By 1986 a family had grown to the size of 7 so they had to move into a very old rundown rowhome on North avenue. " We start them flakes falling on us and our sleep with some type of game. We had no idea we was stuntin our brains. This landlord just taking My pops hard-earned money letting us live in unhealthy squalor. I didn't know this at the time. They didn't educate us like they do now about lead. It wasn't till they started handed them checks out that any of us thought anything of it about it. I got issues with aggression, dyslexia, ADHD, and mood swings. I'm just one many many of my generation from the Sandtown-Winchester, Reservoir Hill area that is struggling because of lead exposure" Lil Luxury went on to say.

Baltimore City has responded in a fairly strong manner. The Baltimore City Health Department routinely participates in advocacy efforts to assess the status and accelerate the pace of eradicating lead paint poisoning in Baltimore City and Maryland as a whole and working to achieve consensus on the coordinated roles and investments required to spare Baltimore’s families and children from another generation of this devastating and preventable disease. Holding landlords accountable Is fundamental in ensuring old homes with lead paint are taken care of in the proper way.

The property Tony bought unseen, on Madison Avenue in Reservoir Hill clearly shown in the video issues presented that needs to be taken care of immediate before allowing tenants to move in if he wants to do things the correct way. He is clearly committed to the well-being of his tenants. "It's 2023 with all the knowledge of lead poisoning any landlord that would allow tenants to move in a structure that throughout clearly has extensive issues that raise blatant health risks some permanent and long-term, has absolutely no regard for people as a person. Greed is horrible" explains Loffredo.