What's Next With Lead?

No More Toxic Housing: Creative Legal, Policy, and Grassroots Solutions for Buffalo and Beyond

April 11, 2014

CLE on toxic housing.

Local activists, academics, community organizers and state experts will exchange ideas toward making Western New York's homes and communities healthier at a daylong lead and toxic housing forum.

The program's sponsors include the University at Buffalo School of Law and its Healthy Homes Legal Practicum, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo's Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, Neighborhood Legal Services, and UB's Civic Engagement and Public Policy Research Initiative.

Students participating in the School of Law practicum provide legal support to the community with a direct service-learning component through Neighborhood Legal Services. Students in the '13-'14 practicum have assisted 72 households including 166 individuals (102 adults and 63 children) who have been challenged by unsafe and unhealthy living conditions.

Professor Kim Diana Connolly, who directs the School of Law's clinical program and is one of three instructors of the practicum, says of the conference: “We have made progress in the Buffalo area on Green and Healthy Homes and lead poisoning in particular. We have, however, far to go to have the kind of impact that the citizens of this region deserve, and that can serve as a model for other regions.”

The conference recognizes a staggering number of lead poisoning cases reported in New York State occur in eight zip codes in Buffalo, and while this has been a well-known fact for many years, as a community we need to devise a plan with what’s next with lead? The forum seeks to explore strategies for homes and communities that are dealing with lead and other toxic housing conditions.

CLE: The University at Buffalo School of Law will offer a total of 3.0 non-transitional CLE credits in the area of Professional Practice for the Friday panels.