Lead tests turn children into Milwaukee’s inspection trigger

Milwaukee renters – In Milwaukee, families say lead hazards are often addressed only after a child’s blood test comes back high—because the city lacks requirements that most rentals get inspected proactively. Parents describe years of harmful delays, housing instability, and hard

Milwaukee didn’t find the lead problem until a doctor did.

For Domininck Tompkins, the moment arrived at her 1-year-old’s visit: a blood test showed her daughter’s lead level was “too high.” Tompkins said she already suspected the source—an ill-kept rental with chipping paint, where lead was likely grinding into daily life.

Weeks later, she described a different kind of test: her landlord pulling up in a truck to collect rent. Tompkins told the woman about a city letter confirming that the lead in her daughter’s body posed significant health risks. When Tompkins rolled down her window, she said the landlord replied with only three words: “I don’t care.”.

After that, Tompkins said the landlord always sent someone else to collect the rent.

The city treats children as the warning system. In Milwaukee. people here often say. kids become the “lead detectors” because officials typically intervene only after a young child tests high for the toxin. No amount of lead exposure is considered safe. The federal government established a blood lead “reference value” of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to flag children with levels higher than most. When a child under the age of 6 tests above 3.5 in Milwaukee. the City gets notified and follows up with the family.

But the process can stall until levels reach a higher threshold. The city’s deeper involvement often begins when a child’s lead level reaches 10 micrograms or above—then officials assign a nurse. investigate to identify the source of exposure. and. in many instances. push for lead abatement work. That can mean replacing windows, covering furnaces, or demolishing a garage.

City officials say the need is large enough that they are running out of time and money to wait for cooperation.

Last year. Milwaukee oversaw 250 renovations for clients who were mostly between the ages of 1 and 3—the largest number of abatement projects in years. Tyler Weber. the city’s deputy commissioner of environmental health. said more than 2. 000 kids under 6 in the Milwaukee area tested high for lead in 2025. and that most cases were in rentals.

Milwaukee used federal grants and city dollars to cover much of the work because. Weber said. landlords wouldn’t pay—and because the city is severely limited in how much it can fine landlords that refuse. “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.”.

The stakes are not abstract.

High lead levels are associated with developmental delays and conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities. A Milwaukee-based study found that even low levels of lead are associated with poorer third-grade academic performance. with the finding holding even when controlling for other factors such as mothers’ income levels or children born prematurely. In the real world, time matters—especially for young children who ingest lead more easily through hand-to-mouth behavior.

Tompkins says that timing has been punishing for her family.

In the decade since her daughter’s test, Tompkins moved several times and was homeless twice. She said most of her rentals included unaddressed lead paint, lead dust, and other hazards. She now has three daughters—11, 7, and 2—with another on the way. Her oldest daughters have struggled with developmental delays and behavioral challenges. which doctors say likely stem at least partly from lead poisoning.

She also knows the problem is not limited to the apartment. Tompkins said she tested high for lead herself as a child—an experience that has left her feeling powerless to secure a lead-free home.

Milwaukee’s lead crisis is tied to a broader housing pattern: nearly 60 percent of Milwaukee households rent rather than own. a percentage that rises significantly for low-income Milwaukeeans. Sociologist Matthew Desmond. in his landmark book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. argued that evictions are a leading cause of poverty. not just a consequence.

Milwaukee’s numbers show why lead hazards can become entangled with housing insecurity. There are more than 12,000 eviction filings a year in Milwaukee County, which has a population of just over 900,000. 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.

While many lead cases are managed through outpatient case management, once or twice a month a child becomes sick enough to be hospitalized for therapy to prevent permanent neurological damage, coma, and, in rare cases, death.

Tompkins is not the only parent describing what it feels like when the system waits for a crisis.

For Shyquetta McElroy, the alarm came early at her son’s six-week checkup. She said that at the time she was breastfeeding and left with instructions only to up her vitamin D intake. By the end of kindergarten. she said her son’s lead level—at almost 10 micrograms—was as high as it had ever been. Teachers told her the boy needed to repeat the year. and McElroy said he wasn’t meeting milestones most of his peers did: using the toilet consistently. writing the first letter of his name. and following instructions.

McElroy said that meeting with teachers was the turning point for her. She told her landlord, who agreed to spend more than $20,000 on lead abatement. She said her family maxed out her credit to put in new walls. windows. and new floors in some sections of the house. and she said she gutted and redid the attic.

She described what made the difference: “She immediately went in and got it fixed.” The reason was simple, and it was also the kind of detail that underscores how uneven the system can be. McElroy said the landlord was her mom.

In other rentals, she said, cooperation wasn’t nearly as generous—especially after she moved to a steeply discounted Section 8 rental. “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.

The lead problem’s roots go back decades. In cities like Baltimore. Cleveland. and Milwaukee. paint that once made many homes valuable became a risk for the people living inside them. 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 housing lower-income tenants.

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

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

But after a few years. Murphy said landlords convinced the city to stop requiring abatement work and instead pushed for voluntary compliance with financial incentives. Murphy left the city health department. citing growing dysfunction and poor leadership. and she said the city’s lead abatement efforts went into free fall. She also tied the eventual resignation of the health commissioner to the department’s failure to notify thousands of families that their children had elevated blood levels.

Wisconsin state law further constrained what Milwaukee could do.

Over time. Wisconsin legislators empowered landlords on several issues. turning lead removal into a more private matter tied to an individual 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. Just over a decade ago. legislators made it virtually impossible for communities to police most landlords proactively when it comes to lead.

In 2015. the Wisconsin State Legislature passed a law—supported by landlords and the state builders’ associations—prohibiting cities and towns from creating rental inspection programs. Wisconsin later lifted the ban two years later. but Murphy said the law still makes it prohibitively difficult for towns and cities to perform meaningful rental inspections of duplexes and single-family homes where city officials say the lead problem persists.

The statute also outlaws rental licensing programs that would help establish and enforce minimal maintenance standards. It sets severe limits on communities’ ability to recoup inspection fees or fine homeowners.

The state also curtails local governments from conducting preemptive code enforcement. Kevin Solomon. senior associate organizer with Common Ground. said that renters typically must make a complaint to get a violation addressed. adding that “Many tenants don’t know to do that.” He said renters also fear retaliation. citing a case last fall in which a Milwaukee landlord was charged with killing his tenant. allegedly because the victim had complained to the city about code violations. Solomon said many renters “call and call. but stop because it doesn’t make a difference—in part because the fines/fees are so low.”.

Wisconsin does have a statute allowing for rent abatements when unaddressed conditions are found to be hazardous to tenants’ health. but the process can be bureaucratic. time-consuming. and limited to a small fraction of rent. Renters can also face eviction court if they withhold too much rent, he said.

For Tompkins, the consequences of that tension arrived with force.

By the time her oldest daughter started school. Tompkins said her family had had enough of paying for a dilapidated rental she feared had poisoned her child. She said lead test after lead test came back positive. She said that when her daughter was a toddler. childcare teachers told her the child needed early intervention services because she was missing developmental milestones related to speech and walking. Tompkins said she resisted at first, determined to help on her own. When teachers raised it a second time. she agreed. and she said her daughter has received extra support and special education services ever since.

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

Tompkins described a morning that arrived without warning shortly before Christmas 2019. She said sheriff’s deputies showed up while she was in the shower. and that she “barely had time to get dressed before the entire family—including her partner. two children. her mother and her 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.” Tompkins said she could not ignore that her relationship with the landlord turned antagonistic right after she complained about lead.

She said she was homeless for several months and sent two kids and her mother to live with relatives in Arizona. She said their next rental also had code violations and eventually burned to the ground because of electrical issues. She said the family was homeless again.

Eventually, she found a current rental on a quiet street, where chipping paint covered the façade, porch, and interior. She said the owner agreed to pay for lead remediation starting with tearing down the porch. but she said the contractor wanted more money than the landlord would pay and little of the work got done.

Tompkins said all three of her children have at different points tested high for lead. and she tries to manage the fallout as best she can. She said she regularly attends Cooking with COLE sessions at a nearby church—where caregivers learn 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 to get appropriate special education supports.

COLE executive director Shyquetta McElroy became a leader on the issue after her own son was poisoned in a rental where the family lived. She said her challenges in Milwaukee’s rental market ultimately inspired her to work as a family advocate and organizer at COLE. and that for the last two years she has served as the organization’s executive director.

Over the years. McElroy built enough resources through a home childcare business and her work at COLE to be more selective about where she lived. She said that when she had to move last winter. she grilled prospective landlords about lead hazards and brought her own testing device when touring homes. She said her assertiveness slowed her search. and she recalled that there were “probably four” rentals where she was turned down because of questions she asked about lead.

In a city where many parents can’t afford to ask questions, McElroy said she wants more accountability from 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.”

Other places offer a contrasting model.

Most cities, people say, are reactive rather than proactive when it comes to lead poisoning and kids. But Rochester. a city of just over 200. 000 in New York. has built one of the most extensive rental inspection programs in the country. For over 20 years. every registered rental unit in the city 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 get dust wipe testing for lead. Any home that fails either type of inspection must pay to be reinspected before it can be rented out.

Murphy said “What Rochester is doing should be the norm.” She said that between 2000 and 2016, the rate of children testing with elevated levels dropped 85 percent.

This year, an inspection program modeled on Rochester’s was expanded to more than 20 cities across the state. Unlike Wisconsin, New York law does not severely restrict local efforts to build out rental inspection programs or code enforcement. New York tenants also benefit from laws and regulations that give them more power than the average tenant in Wisconsin. including increased protections. longer timelines in eviction proceedings. and classifying illegal eviction as a crime.

That shift may be starting to happen in Milwaukee.

A new tenant union. Tenants United. formed six months ago under Common Ground to lobby on rent prices. unsafe conditions in rentals. and other issues. Tenants United partnered with the Milwaukee city attorney in the spring to sue Highgrove Holdings. one of the city’s largest out-of-state landlords and the subject of countless lead hazard complaints. The suit argues Highgrove has become a nuisance to its tenants and the entire city.

A plan to replace all lead service lines—a source of water contamination—is underway. Milwaukee’s health department and the city attorney are also positioned to take more action on lead hazards in homes. Weber said the city has seen a slight uptick in landlords paying for abatement work because of stepped-up enforcement over the last few years.

But there is a deadline looming that could slow progress. At the end of 2026. the city will lose the federal pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act funds that have been paying for much of its lead abatement efforts. Weber said he thinks the city can make up most of the shortfall through a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. but that money comes with more restrictions. including a stricter cap on how much can be spent on each house.

Meanwhile, the state laws blocking rental inspections, preemptive code enforcement, and meaningful fines remain impediments to change. So do eviction laws.

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

For McElroy and Tompkins, the aftermath has outlasted the tests.

McElroy’s eldest has not tested high for lead since he was about 6. but she said he still struggles with the effects of the poisoning. She said the 19-year-old. who recently finished high school. has trouble retaining information and grapples with vision and hearing problems that physicians say are likely lingering effects of lead. “You can lower the lead level, but they never lose the damage,” McElroy said.

Tompkins’s oldest daughters continue to experience developmental and cognitive delays affecting their academics and behavior. She is also expecting her fourth daughter, due in July, and she hopes the baby never has to live in a lead-contaminated home.

She said the new landlord at her house 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. but she described herself as cautiously optimistic. “It’s a big project he has to do,” she said. “So one step at a time.”.

Milwaukee lead poisoning lead abatement rental inspections tenant rights Wisconsin landlords eviction childhood blood lead reference value Cooking with COLE Common Ground Tenants United Highgrove Holdings