Oops, they did it again.
Officials of the New York City Housing Authority on Thursday copped to yet another violation of lead-paint laws, acknowledging that they had not been inspecting common areas of developments as required by law.
The admission came in a notice to residents and a note to media organizations saying the inspections would begin this month.
“These inspections have not been systematically conducted since Local Law 1 was passed in 2003,” the notice to residents says.
That law requires building owners to not only inspect annually for lead-paint hazards in apartments but also in common areas.
NYCHA officials couldn’t say when the last time annual inspections of common areas were conducted.
They said there was no system-wide protocol for doing them but that individual developments had sometimes done the required checks.
The goof is only the latest for the reeling agency, which failed to conduct annual inspections of roughly 55,000 apartments for lead-paint hazards between late 2012 and early 2016 — but falsely certified to the federal government that it had.
Public Advocate Letitia James, who has called for NYCHA chair Shola Olatoye (pictured) to resign, said the agency’s latest revelation is just more evidence that major changes are needed.
“Another day, another NYCHA failure to protect children,” she said.
“It is clear that we need real accountability, leadership and reform at NYCHA.”
Even after Olatoye learned in April 2016 about the agency’s lapse in apartment inspections — including of more than 4,200 units with children under 6 — NYCHA didn’t come clean to residents or the public for more than a year.
Inspections at apartments housing children under 6 resumed in May 2016, but residents weren’t advised to have their kids tested for elevated levels of lead until recently.
Those same inspections in 2017 have found potential lead-paint hazards in 81 percent of the nearly 8,900 apartments reviewed.
The balance of the 55,000 apartments won’t be inspected for the first time until 2018.
At least six children in NYCHA apartments recorded elevated lead levels between 2014 and 2016 stemming from a lead-paint hazard, according to city officials.
They have refused to make public any cases of elevated lead levels from 2017.