Firm reaches wide accord on lead paint

A prominent Boston-based real estate company has agreed to test for and remove any hazardous lead paint from nearly 10,400 apartments nationwide, including more than 7,000 in Massachusetts, under a consent agreement that federal and state officials plan to announce today.

The settlement between the government and WinnResidential Limited Partnership is one of the largest to target lead paint violations in the United States, officials said yesterday. The agreement was reached after regulators contended the company failed to notify tenants that their homes might contain potentially hazardous levels of lead. Officials could not say how many, if any, of the apartments contain lead paint.

Under the agreement reached with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency, WinnResidential will pay the government a $105,000 fine and test and clean up any apartments in its developments tainted with lead, at a cost that could reach $3.7 million, depending on the findings, EPA officials said.

Most of the apartments covered under the consent agreement are in Dorchester, Roxbury, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, Springfield, and other Massachusetts communities, as well as urban neighborhoods in Pennsylvania, California, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., officials said.

In a statement, Miniard Culpepper, HUD's acting regional director for New England, said he hoped the settlement would send a message to landlords about respecting lead-paint laws. The agreement followed a three-year, joint federal and state investigation of WinnResidential's properties nationwide.

''Today's settlement should remind landlords that they have a legal responsibility to tell their tenants if their homes may harm their children," Culpepper said. ''This agreement will not only create thousands of healthier homes but will give families the peace of mind to raise their kids without fear of lead poisoning."

WinnResidential spokesman Will Woodruff said the company is committed to providing safe apartments for its tenants and is taking steps to correct problems.

''We are committed to lead-paint safety and have cooperated fully in this important administrative review," Woodruff said. ''We are disappointed that administrative violations were found and already have taken all necessary action to correct them. We are gratified that this investigation found no violations related to lead-paint testing and abatement."

Arthur Winn, chairman of WinnCompanies, which includes WinnResidential, started developing affordable housing in Salem in 1971. Since then, his company and its affiliates have grown to control $2 billion in assets, which include 235 housing developments nationwide.

WinnResidential has become the 15th largest multifamily property manager in the United States, company officials say.

Winn has also become an influential player in real estate, political, and philanthropic circles. Recently, Winn and developer Roger Cassin were seeking to build Columbus Center, an ambitious $450 million condo and hotel project, near the site of the Hard Rock Cafe on Clarendon Street.

State campaign finance records also indicated that Winn has donated thousands to Democratic and Republican legislators and committees, and his company website says he is active in the Anti-Defamation League, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and other charities.

Federal officials said the action against WinnResidential was the largest since the government brought a lead-paint case in 2003 against a Hartford firm, Apartment Investment and Management Co., which resulted in a $129,580 fine and an order to test and clean up more than 130,000 apartments nationwide.

Regulators are battling a vast problem with lead paint, with potentially serious health effects.

Nationwide, nearly 450,000 children under age 6 show dangerously high levels of lead, much of it caused by ingesting dust from flaking, chipping paint.

Lead paint exposure, which can lead to lower IQs, learning disabilities, and physical impairments, is considered particularly acute in low-income neighborhoods, where housing tends to be older and more decrepit.

In Boston alone, 2001 statistics showed 1,100 children with elevated levels of lead, mostly in poor and minority neighborhoods, EPA and HUD officials said.

WinnResidential's properties, scattered across Massachusetts, include a mix of elderly and family housing, with a range of income levels.

Under state law, families with children under age 6 are entitled to have their homes de-leaded, said Sarah Nathan, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who aided the WinnResidential investigation. But many prospective tenants are not aware of the law or their right, Nathan said.

As part of the lead-paint settlement, WinnResidential agreed to a policy with Reilly intended to prevent housing discrimination against families with young children.

''Despite the fact that so much can be done to keep kids safe from lead paint, too many are still poisoned in their own homes," Reilly said in a statement. ''This agreement sets the standard for the property management industry and sends the message that, through collaboration, we can make significant strides to protect our children."

Officials have made some progress to reduce lead-paint risks in recent years. Today, approximately 26 million fewer homes in the United States contain lead paint than in 1990, according to federal data.

Officials estimate the average amount of lead in children's blood has dropped by 25 percent between 1996 and 1999.

Yesterday, some tenants in WinnResidential buildings said they were unaware of any lead-paint notification problems.

Many also said they were pleased with WinnResidential's attentiveness to lead-paint testing and believed their homes were safe.