Repair-Needing "Dream Home" Unloaded Onto Unwitting Grandma In Rent-To-Own Deal Turns Into Toxic Nightmare: Young Grandkids End Up Forced Out Of Home w/ Lead Paint Poisoning, She's Criminally Convicted For Failing To Make Unaffordable Remediation, House Ends Up Foreclosed

In Cleveland, Ohio, The Plain Dealer reports:

• It was Stephanie Thomas' dream to own a home. The 46-year-old grandmother knew the rent-to-own colonial she'd moved into on Lenacrave Avenue needed work.
  
  She didn't know, though, that her new home was chock full of a dangerous toxin that would soon poison two of her grandchildren, land her in court and ultimately threaten to leave her homeless.
  
  Thomas' story is just one example that illustrates a slow-moving and disjointed system that responds to lead poisoned children in Cleveland, one where the outcome doesn't necessarily result in eliminating the poisonous hazard.
  
  Thomas story began in early December of 2012, when the Cleveland Health Department cited her after her her 1-and 2-year-old grandkids tested high for levels of lead in their blood.
  
  A city inspector investigated and found the lead was coming from her three-bedroom home in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
  
  The city gave Thomas time to fix the problems, which included lead-based paint peeling from the outside of her home and toxic dust from old doors and windows.
  
  The city's Environment Commissioner Chantez Williams said, in general, the city starts by giving property owners 90 days to fix a hazard, though they can ask for an extension.
  
  "They try to do the right thing," Williams said. "But what we're finding is that they don't have the necessary resources to do those things so it takes them a little bit more time to do that."
  
  Thomas's case, though, trailed out three years, through failed attempts at fixing the problem, after her grandchildren moved out of the home, which ultimately went into foreclosure and was sold at Sheriff's sale.
  
  
  ***
  
  Public records provided by the city to The Plain Dealer revealed that during a five-year window from 2009 through 2014 it took anywhere from a few months to two years from the time a property owner received an initial citation to the time a city prosecutor filed a criminal case for failure to abate a lead nuisance.
  
  In Thomas' case, a misdemeanor charge for not abiding by the city health code was filed in Housing Court eight months after she was initially cited.
  
  Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka put Thomas in a diversion program so she could be given more time to do the work. He also, as he does in many cases, ordered her not to have children staying in the home.
  
  Court staff referred her to city programs that could have helped with the needed repairs but she said she didn't qualify for some of them because she was behind on her taxes.
  
  The largest of these programs is federally funded with grants from The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  
  The failed to get one of those grants in 2013 and has had little money to assist homeowners like Thomas since then. The city recently was awarded a $3.3 grant to restart those programs.
  
  A city program did help Thomas get exterior paint. She and her elderly father scaled ladders, covering over the dangerous old layers of paint. She also replaced several windows but said the work was a bit overwhelming. Thomas paid for the work with tax returns and later, after she was deemed disabled, with money from Social Security payments. "I'm at a point where I just don't want to worry and stress about this any more," Stephanie Thomas said.
  
  A roof leak and a busted pipe that caused extensive water damage over the winter set Thomas back once again. Soon she was facing foreclosure.
  
  Pianka eventually found her guilty and placed her on two years of probation but waived the court fines and fees she couldn't afford. [...]

For more, see A dream home turns into a lead hazard nightmare for one Cleveland grandmother.

Go here for links to other recent Plain Dealer stories on lead based paint poisoning.