Buffalo City Sued Over Rental Inspections

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Several organizations have filed a lawsuit against the City of Buffalo, demanding that the city implement the proactive rental inspection law.

Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, executive director of the Partnership for the Public Good, cited a doctor’s comments in a sworn affidavit that “in 2023 and 2024, all of the children who needed medical treatment at the Western New York Lead Poisoning Prevention Center were living in rental housing, and these are children with the most severe levels of lead exposure who are requiring this medical intervention.”

In 2020, the Buffalo Common Council adopted proactive rental inspections.

“The stated purpose of the Act is to achieve complete elimination of lead paint hazards in order to correct and prevent many other unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions, and to restrict and revoke the rental privileges of landlords who fail to maintain safe and healthy housing,” she said.

John Lipsitz, a pro bono attorney, said: “The City of Buffalo, as it has for over 30 years, continues to drag its feet. It continues to sweep the problem under the rug as the crisis worsens. It continues to affect the city’s poor communities and new immigrant communities at a very high rate.”

Four organizations and four individuals filed complaints.

Dawn Wells-Clyburn, executive director of PUSH Buffalo, said her organization joined the lawsuit “because we have lost confidence in the Brown administration’s ability to implement a critical tool in the fight for housing justice in our city.”

A Buffalo city spokesperson said it would not respond to pending litigation. During his State of the City address, the mayor announced the city was hiring seven new housing inspectors.

The governor’s office also provided guidance on lead and housing.