For Sandra Leon, a Coney Island mother living in a NYCHA apartment, home has meant cracked bathroom tile, fractured flooring and a constant fear that her family is being exposed to lead. She says she has had open repair tickets going back to 2023, yet the broken surfaces are still there and the anxiety over her family's health has only grown. Leon believes the crumbling tile and plaster contain lead and says inspections have not turned into real fixes, a situation that echoes long-running complaints from many public-housing tenants about sluggish repair work.
According to News 12, a NYCHA report from January 2025 confirmed lead-based paint in Leon's bathroom. Leon told the outlet she has been dealing with open work tickets since 2023 and said she was informed the cracked tile contains lead. "It's just plain horrible. This is three years in the making," she told News 12. In a statement to the station, NYCHA said staff will "work with the resident to schedule the necessary abatement and expedite the carpentry, plastering and painting work."
How NYCHA says it handles lead
NYCHA says it addresses lead hazards through its TEMPO Abatement Program, which, according to NYCHA, puts occupied apartments first, with a special focus on homes where children under 6 live. The agency reports completing thousands of abatements across its buildings. NYCHA's public materials state that abatements are carried out to the city's 0.5 mg/cm² standard and that residents can be temporarily relocated while the work is underway. Tenants are directed to the Customer Contact Center and the MyNYCHA portal to open work tickets and arrange abatement scheduling.
Why Coney Island residents worry
City health data shows that Coney Island, grouped with Sheepshead Bay, had an elevated blood-lead level rate of 8.8 per 1,000 children tested in 2024, underscoring that lead exposure is still a neighborhood concern, according to NYC Health. Lead from deteriorating paint and older plumbing can impair children's learning and development, and public-health officials stress there is no safe amount of lead in the blood. While they wait for abatement, tenants in public housing often focus on getting children tested and carefully documenting repair requests.
What tenants can do next
NYCHA lists its Customer Contact Center at 718-707-7771 and the MyNYCHA portal as the primary tools to report hazards and schedule repairs or lead abatement work. The agency's NYCHA contact information includes walk-in locations and complaint paths for tenants who need to escalate issues. If repairs stall, residents can save copies of work tickets, ask management for written timelines and reach out to local councilmembers or city health and housing agencies for help. Legal services and tenant-advocacy organizations can also assist tenants who want to push harder on unresolved hazards.
Leon says she is simply asking for a safe home while she waits for NYCHA to follow through on the promised abatement. "They know that there's lead, but nothing is getting done," she told News 12. Neighbors say similar maintenance backlogs are common across nearby developments. For now, Coney Island tenants are watching for work crews and hoping NYCHA's abatement program can finally catch up to the problem.
