How children became this city’s lead detectors

children as – In Milwaukee, young children are often the first—and sometimes the only—signal that a home is poisoning them. When blood lead levels rise, the city can step in, but most landlords face few proactive requirements to inspect and fix hazards. Tenants describe a c

MILWAUKEE — A doctor told Domininck Tompkins that her 1-year-old’s lead level was too high. Within weeks, Tompkins said, she confronted the reality she suspected: the family lived in a poorly maintained rental with chipping paint.

When her landlord arrived in a truck to collect rent, Tompkins said she showed the woman a city letter confirming that lead detected in her daughter’s body posed significant health risks. Tompkins recalled the landlord’s reply as she rolled up her window: “I don’t care.”

After that, Tompkins said the landlord always sent someone else to collect the rent. She moved several times and was homeless twice. Most of her rentals, she said, included unaddressed lead paint, lead dust and other hazards. Now she has three daughters—11. 7 and 2—with another on the way. and she says her oldest daughters have struggled with developmental delays and behavioral challenges doctors believe likely stem at least partly from lead poisoning.

Milwaukee, like countless other cities, has no requirements that most rentals get inspected for lead. Tompkins described feeling powerless in a system where landlords can ignore complaints without consequence—and where, too often, the damage comes first.

“Children are the ‘lead detectors,’” people here often say, because city officials typically intervene with landlords only after a young child tests high.

The federal government uses a blood lead “reference value” of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to flag children with lead levels higher than most. In Milwaukee, when a child under the age of 6 tests above 3.5, the city gets notified and follows up. But officials describe a deeper level of involvement mainly when levels reach 10 micrograms or above.

When a child crosses that higher mark. the city assigns a nurse. investigates to find the source of exposure—which usually turns out to be the home. despite a well-publicized school lead crisis last year—and. in many instances. pushes for lead abatement work such as replacing windows. covering furnaces or demolishing a garage.

Last year. the city oversaw 250 of these renovations for children. who were mostly between the ages of 1 and 3—the largest number of abatement projects in years. City officials would like that number to rise. More than 2. 000 kids under 6 in the Milwaukee area tested high for lead in 2025. and the significant majority of these cases were in rentals. said Tyler Weber. the city’s deputy commissioner of environmental health.

To carry out much of the work, Milwaukee used federal grants and city dollars because landlords wouldn’t pay, and the city is severely limited in terms of how much it can fine owners who refuse to act.

“Sometimes we have to throw money at the property even if the landlord is going to benefit,” Weber said. “Do you hate the landlord more than you love the child? That’s often the situation we are stuck in.”

Nearly 60 percent of Milwaukee households rent rather than own, and that share rises significantly for low-income Milwaukeeans. The lead crisis lands in that same pressure point—poverty. instability. and housing conditions that don’t get fixed in time. In “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. ” sociologist Matthew Desmond described Milwaukee renters’ struggles with sometimes cutthroat landlords. making the case that evictions are a leading cause of poverty.

Milwaukee County has more than 12,000 eviction filings a year, out of a population of just over 900,000. The lead crisis shows how the conditions that allow evictions to flourish can also harm children long after a case is closed.

Over 10 percent of tested children in 51 census tracts between 2018 and 2021 turned up positive for lead poisoning. In six tracts, over 20 percent of children were poisoned—more than eight times the national average.

Young children are particularly vulnerable. Their brains are developing so rapidly, and hand-to-mouth behavior increases the likelihood that they will ingest lead. People of all ages can be affected, but the harm done in early life shows up later in learning, attention and behavior.

A Milwaukee-based study found that even low levels of lead are associated with poorer third grade academic performance. That held true even when controlling for other factors, such as mothers’ income levels or children who were born prematurely. In the study’s conclusion, the authors stressed home lead abatement efforts to strengthen Milwaukee children’s academic performance. For many renters, abatement comes too late—or not at all.

While many Milwaukee cases are treated through outpatient case management, every month or two a child becomes sick enough to be hospitalized for therapy to prevent permanent neurological damage, coma and, in rare cases, death.

For Shyquetta McElroy, the warning came early—at her eldest son’s six-week checkup. She learned his lead level was too high. She was breastfeeding at the time and left with instructions only to up her vitamin D intake.

By the end of kindergarten. McElroy said her son’s lead level—almost 10 micrograms—was as high as it had ever been. She began to understand, she said, how deeply the poisoning had affected him. His teachers told her he needed to repeat the year. He didn’t meet milestones that most peers reached: using the toilet consistently. writing the first letter of his name. following instructions.

That meeting pushed her to a level of action that not every tenant can secure. McElroy told her landlord, who agreed to spend more than $20,000 on lead abatement—maxing out her credit to put in new walls, windows and, in some sections of the house, new floors. She also gutted and redid the attic.

“She immediately went in and got it fixed,” McElroy said.

The reason, McElroy discovered, was rare. The landlord was her mom.

After leaving her mother’s apartment, McElroy said she moved into a steeply discounted Section 8 rental. She said that experience made her see how limited landlord cooperation often is.

“Being in a position where you are low-income and don’t have the money to change your situation, you got to go with what you can,” she said.

Decades ago, McElroy’s experience traces back to a grim urban pattern. In cities like Baltimore. Cleveland and Milwaukee. what had once been a rich man’s paint became largely a poor person’s problem. Coinciding with redlining. white flight and urban disinvestment. stately homes finished with lead paint in the first half of the 20th century were converted into multifamily rental units that often housed lower-income tenants.

Milwaukee had once moved earlier than many places. In 1991. the city updated lead ordinances requiring abatement work in rentals if a child was exposed to lead hazards—even without a positive blood test. Amy Murphy. lead manager for Milwaukee’s health department from 1992 to 2006. said the city regularly took owners to court and fined them.

In 1999. Milwaukee started a pilot rental inspection project that required 1. 000 homes in two high-risk areas to be brought up to an established standard of lead safety within one year. Murphy said the ordinance shifted the balance of power between property owners and tenants. Owners, Murphy said, “didn’t want to be legislated.”.

After a few years. landlords convinced the city to stop requiring abatement work and argued for voluntary action with financial incentives. Murphy left the health department, citing growing dysfunction and poor leadership. She said the city’s once-ambitious lead abatement efforts went into free fall. Ultimately. the health commissioner was forced to resign after the department failed to notify thousands of families that their children had elevated blood levels.

At the same time, Wisconsin legislators empowered landlords on multiple issues, turning lead removal into a more private matter tied to a homeowner’s willingness to act.

State laws have long made it easier for landlords in Wisconsin to evict tenants than in many other states, particularly those on either coast. Starting just over a decade ago, lawmakers also made it virtually impossible for communities to proactively police most landlords about lead.

In 2015. the Wisconsin State Legislature passed a law. supported by landlords and the state builders association. prohibiting cities and towns from creating proactive rental inspection programs. The result. the story notes. left Milwaukee without a way to ensure most rentals would be safe for families and young kids before they moved in.

Wisconsin lifted the ban two years later. but the earlier law continued to make it prohibitively difficult for towns and cities to do meaningful rental inspections of duplexes and single-family homes where city officials say most lead problems persist. It outlaws rental licensing programs that could establish and enforce minimal maintenance standards. and it sets severe limits on communities’ ability to recoup inspection fees or fine homeowners.

Wisconsin law also curtails local governments from conducting preemptive code enforcement. Renters typically must make a complaint to get a violation addressed.

“Many tenants don’t know to do that. ” said Kevin Solomon. senior associate organizer with Common Ground. a nonprofit advocacy group in Milwaukee that works on tenants’ rights. Solomon added that renters fear retaliation. citing a case last fall when a Milwaukee landlord was charged with killing his tenant. allegedly because the victim complained to the city about code violations. Solomon wrote in an e-mail that many call repeatedly but stop because it doesn’t make a difference in part because fines and fees are so low.

Wisconsin does have a statute allowing for rent abatements when unaddressed hazardous conditions are found, but the process can be bureaucratic, time-consuming and limited to a small fraction of rent. And renters who withhold too much rent, the story says, can find themselves in eviction court.

For Tompkins, the housing system didn’t just fail to prevent lead exposure—it collided with the stress of rent enforcement and eviction.

By the time her oldest daughter started school, Tompkins and her family had had enough. They had paid for a dilapidated rental she feared had poisoned her child. and lead test after lead test came back positive. When the girl was a toddler. childcare teachers told her she needed early intervention services because she was missing developmental milestones related to speech and walking.

Tompkins said she resisted at first, determined to help her child on her own. When teachers raised it again, she agreed. She said her daughter has received extra support and special education services ever since.

In 2019, the family owed back rent but believed they were paying it off. Tompkins told her landlord the family planned to move, frustrated by years of inaction on lead abatement and other repairs. The landlord took steps to evict them.

On a frigid morning shortly before Christmas 2019, Tompkins said sheriff’s deputies arrived without notice while she was in the shower. She barely had time to get dressed before the entire family—including her partner, two children, mother and sister—was forced to the street.

“They put us out in the dead of winter,” she said. “My kids had no shoes on their feet.” She said the timing wasn’t lost on her: she believed the antagonistic relationship with her landlord began after she complained about lead.

Tompkins was homeless for several months. She sent her two kids and her mother to live with relatives in Arizona. She found another rental with code violations that, she said, eventually burned to the ground because of electrical issues. The family was homeless again.

The current rental, she said, sits on a quiet street with chipping paint covering the facade, porch and interior. Several months ago, the owner agreed to pay for lead remediation, beginning with tearing down the porch. But Tompkins said the contractor wanted more money than the landlord was willing to pay. and little of the work got done.

All three of Tompkins’ children have, at different points, tested high for lead. Tompkins tries to manage risks while waiting for repairs. She regularly attends Cooking with COLE sessions at a nearby church. Caregivers learn how to mitigate lead risks by cooking with filtered water. feeding children certain healthy foods. sealing off chipping paint and conducting regular cleaning with wet wipes.

COLE also coaches families on how to talk with pediatricians about lead and negotiate with schools for appropriate special education supports.

The effort doesn’t erase the strain. Tompkins said her 7-year-old has behavioral challenges in school, and a doctor once said her 2-year-old might need early intervention for developmental delays. “It’s about these kids’ safety — lead affects them more than the rest of us,” she said.

McElroy’s lead experience pushed her in a different direction—toward organizing. Her challenges in the rental market inspired her to work as a family advocate and organizer at COLE. where she supports parents like Tompkins. For the last two years, McElroy has served as the organization’s executive director.

Over the years, McElroy said she built resources through a home childcare business and her work at COLE, giving her more options. When she had to move last winter, she grilled prospective landlords about lead hazards and brought her own testing device when she toured homes.

Her assertiveness, she said, slowed the hunt for a new place. “There were probably four that turned me down where I knew it had something to do with the questions that I asked about lead.”

In a city where many parents can’t afford to ask questions the way she did, McElroy said she wants stronger accountability for landlords.

“As it is, the landlord can come up with any reason why this couldn’t be done,” she said. “The loopholes are bigger for the landlords and very, very narrow for the tenants.”

Milwaukee isn’t alone in relying on a reactive model. But some communities have moved toward prevention. Rochester, New York—population just over 200,000—has built one of the most extensive rental inspection programs in the country. For over 20 years. every registered rental unit in Rochester has received a visual inspection for deteriorating paint every three to six years. In high-risk areas where most childhood lead poisoning cases occur, many rentals also receive dust wipe testing for lead. If a home fails either inspection, it must pay to be reinspected before it can be rented out.

The story reports that while lead poisoning remains a threat in Rochester, the numbers have improved: between 2000 and 2016, the rate of children testing with elevated levels dropped 85 percent.

“What Rochester is doing should be the norm,” Murphy said. She has continued working on the issue nationally, including for the National Center for Healthy Housing.

This year, an inspection program modeled on Rochester’s was expanded to more than 20 cities across the state. New York law, unlike Wisconsin, does not severely restrict local efforts to build rental inspection programs or proactive code enforcement. New York tenants also have additional protections and longer timelines in the eviction process. The story says illegal eviction is classified as a crime. and these rules give tenants more leverage to negotiate with landlords on issues including lead.

Back in Milwaukee, the tide may be shifting in small but meaningful ways. A new tenant union, Tenants United, was formed six months ago under the auspices of Common Ground to lobby on rent prices, unsafe conditions in rentals and other issues.

Tenants United partnered with the Milwaukee city attorney in spring to sue Highgrove Holdings, one of the city’s largest out-of-state landlords and the subject of countless lead hazard complaints. The lawsuit argues Highgrove had become a nuisance to its tenants and the entire city.

A plan to replace all lead service lines, a source of water contamination, is well underway. Milwaukee’s health department and city attorney. the story says. are primed to take more action on lead hazards in homes. City officials have also seen a slight uptick in landlords paying for abatement work after stepped-up enforcement over the last few years.

But change sits on a timer. At the end of 2026. the city will lose federal pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act funds paying for much of its lead abatement efforts. Weber said he thinks Milwaukee can make up most of the shortfall through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. though that money comes with more restrictions. including a stricter cap on how much can be spent on each house.

And the legal obstacles remain. State laws continue to block rental inspections, preemptive code enforcement and meaningful fines. Eviction laws also shape the reality families face once lead is discovered.

When a child has been poisoned by lead, “Mom and Dad are devastated. They are angry,” Weber said. “They say, ‘Why would I continue paying rent?’ But there’s no protections, and they can be evicted…” He snaps a finger.

The long-term cost is visible in families like McElroy’s and Tompkins’.

McElroy’s eldest has not tested high for lead since he was about 6. but the teenager still struggles with effects of poisoning. Physicians, McElroy said, point to lingering impacts including vision and hearing problems. The 19-year-old recently finished high school and has a hard time retaining information.

“You can lower the lead level, but they never lose the damage,” McElroy said.

Tompkins’ oldest daughters continue to experience developmental and cognitive delays that affect both academics and behavior. She is due in July with her fourth daughter and said she hopes the next child never has to live in a lead-contaminated home.

Her new landlord has committed to extensive abatement and renovation, including a new porch and windows and replacement walls and floors in some rooms. Tompkins said the renovation work will likely force the family to move out temporarily. Still, she is cautiously optimistic.

“It’s a big project he has to do,” she said. “So one step at a time.”

Milwaukee lead poisoning rental inspection lead abatement early childhood health tenants rights eviction developmental delays educational performance Wisconsin housing policy Rochester rental inspections