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Lawsuit Filed Over Enforcement Of Massachusetts Lead Paint Law

A housing advocacy organization has sued Massachusetts health officials over the state’s lead paint law.  

Rather than encouraging landlords to remove lead paint, the 1971 law incentivizes housing discrimination against families with young children, alleges Meris Bergquist, executive director of the Holyoke-based Massachusetts Fair Housing Center.

" Landlords find it irrestible to avoid renting to these famlies rather than obeying the Massachusetts lead law," said Bergquist in an interview.

Plaintiffs in the federal court lawsuit include two families who claim they faced discrimination because of the lead law.

The Department of Public Health declined comment.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.