Paint Removal May Cost Billions : Health: U.S. is under strong pressure to protect children from possible lead poisoning in homes the government owns through foreclosure.

The federal government could be facing a multibillion-dollar bill to remove hazardous lead-based paint from houses and apartments, child and health care advocates say.

Court decisions and federal legislation have contributed to the mounting pressure for action as the government has become the owner of thousands of residential properties through foreclosures during the real estate recession. Under federal law, the government is obligated to pay for much of the removal of lead-based paint in the residences it owns or insures, and also in places where people with rent subsidies live.

In June, the Department of Veterans Affairs offered a $61,000 settlement to Sandra and Lee Roseberry of the Portsmouth, N.H., to cover their losses on a house bought from the Veterans Administration that contained much lead-based paint. Two of the Roseberrys’ three children have lead poisoning.

The settlement is the first of its kind to be offered by the government, and as such it sets a significant precedent, activists say. The Roseberrys bought their house from the VA in 1983 after the had VA foreclosed on the previous owners.

Lead poisoning causes reading and learning problems, mental retardation and liver and kidney damage, according to the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning. It is irreversible, and at its worst, can be fatal. Lead poisoning is most often caused by inhaling airborne lead dust.

In an interview this summer after the offer to settle the Roseberry case was made, Edward J. Derwinski, U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs, said, “We’ll take a look at the entire area” of the department’s procedures and responsibility in such cases. Derwinski said that he asked his staff to “work out something” to help the Roseberrys, in response to an appeal from Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo).

The Roseberrys had described their children’s illness in a congressional hearing chaired by Lantos, who leads a House employment and housing subcommittee.

Activists charge that, despite laws and court orders that spell out the government’s responsibilities, it has ducked the lead-paint problem for years. an ethical and budgetary nightmare looms as the nation finally faces the question of who should pay, and where the money will come from, to get rid of lead-based paint and treat the poisoned children.

Federal officials are being urged to tackle the problem at a time when the government already faces fiscal crises caused by the recession and the many savings and loan failures, activists say.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has estimated that it would take $1.9 billion to $2.4 billion a year to test for and eliminate lead-paint hazards in 500,000 homes occupied by families with young children. That number represent a small portion of all the 57 million homes in the country believed to contain lead-based paint.

Those cost estimates do not, of course, take into account the medical costs for treating children suffering from lead poisoning. They also do not include the billions it is estimated that it would cost to remove lead-based paint in public housing, HUD spokesmen say. HUD estimates that it would cost about $7,700 per unit to remove lead-based paint from public housing, and that figure does not include the cost of any testing to determine whether lead is present or of providing lodging for the occupants while any contaminants are removed.

The Environmental Defense Fund, a national advocacy organization, estimates that it would cost about $240 billion to get eliminate the lead hazards in the 24 million houses and apartments where such action is most needed, said Ellen Silbergeld, a University of Maryland professor who is director of the toxic chemicals program for the fund. Altogether, about 42 million housing units in the country are old enough to contain lead-based paint, Silbergeld said. Lead-based paint was banned for housing in 1971.

To solve the cost problem, the defense found has proposed a tax of 75 cents per pound on lead. That would generate between $2 billion and $3 billion a year, based on current levels of lead use.

Federal authorities estimate that one of six American children under age 6 suffers from lead poisoning. Further, a scientific advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta recently recommended that the blood-lead level reading indicating lead poisoning should be lowered by more than half. Should that be adopted, then, millions more youngsters would be determined to be suffering from the malady.

Cushing Dolbeare, a board member of the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, said that “immediate priority” should be given to inspecting government-owned properties being sold to the public. “It is unconscionable for the federal government to sell to an unsuspecting family a home with lead hazards waiting to poison their children,” she said at a recent congressional hearing.

Felisa Neuringer, a spokeswoman for the Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency that manages failed thrifts and their assets (of which residential real estate is a significant portion) said the agency does not own houses and thus “we would not have to comply” with the laws requiring the paint be removed or covered before the homes are sold. Some activists argue that the RTC should pay for the lead-paint removal in those houses. Neuringer said earlier this year, however, that “our lawyers are reviewing the whole issue” and that the agency “will probably create its own policy.” She said in June that the RTC was trying to sell about 23,000 homes.

At the request of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who introduced lead cleanup legislation earlier this year, the General Accounting Office has begun investigating whether the government is fulfilling its responsibilities in lead-paint removal and poisoning prevention, according to David Marwick, an assistant director of the agency.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency are responsible for some aspects of lead cleanup and treatment, but laws dating back to 1971 charge HUD with much of the task.

HUD Secretary Jack Kemp says he is “committed to meeting this challenge” and that he will ask Congress for the money needed to deal with the problem.

So far, HUD has asked for $25 million to help low-income homeowners test for and eliminate lead paint in their properties, he said. The House has passed the bill containing this request.