Making older homes a safer haven for young families

“We didn’t think that we had lead here, but it turned out that we did,” said Karah Witmer, a mom of two young children and homeowner in Lancaster County. The home Witmer and her husband bought was to raise a family—little did they know that home, built in 1920, had the potential to inflict permanent damage on their future children. Thankfully, when Witmer was in the hospital before giving birth, they learned that Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health had a program that could identify and protect them from any potentially harmful lead in their homes. The Witmers signed up for testing right away.

The home test came back positive for lead paint. The Lead-Free Families team came to their home to begin the lead remediation process, and now, Karah says, “It’s a big relief knowing we are raising our kids in a home that’s safe for them and we don’t have to worry.”

Hundreds of Lancaster County families are safe from the dangers of lead poisoning—and more help is coming. Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health is only halfway through a 10-year effort to rid the county of the household hazard.

Lead poisoning is almost completely preventable, but it can result in serious and lifelong health and developmental issues for young children. That’s why, in 2021, Lancaster General Health began Lead-Free Families and invested $50 million to address lead hazards within the community.

The comprehensive lead-abatement initiative was the first of its kind in the United States to be funded and led by a health system. Lancaster, with its disproportionate number of homes built before 1978, when lead paint was banned, and a high percentage of children under 7, had a public health problem to solve. Lancaster General Health saw this as an opportunity to make a unique health care investment, one within the homes of its patients.

As of January 2026, Lead-Free Families had cleaned up lead contamination from 790 homes. Lead remediation includes testing the painted area, identifying if it is hazardous, and potentially replacing the surface and/or paint.

“The Lancaster General Health Board of Directors’ commitment to take on lead remediation in Lancaster County homes was a catalytic investment in the health of our community, especially for children and historically marginalized groups,” said Ashley Lundy, executive director of the Women and Pediatric service line and director of Lancaster General Health’s Community Health department. She said the commitment was part of a broader mission to help families live in safe and healthy housing.

As well as remediation, the program provides education, case management, screening, and advocacy events.

In addition to the $50 million invested by Lancaster General Health, the initiative has expanded its impact through federal housing aid funding. In 2021, it won $2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to clean up additional health hazards in the homes of 150 Lancaster County families—just one of two such grants awarded to health systems that year.

In 2025, the continued success of the program led to a second federal housing grant for another $1.9 million to continue the work for an additional three years. The team also received $1.1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to broaden the demographic of families being helped, including those with children over the age of six or in an expanded geographic area.

Lancaster General Health is working with the City of Lancaster and the national lead-abatement organization the Green and Healthy Homes initiative on this project, which is getting state-wide recognition. The groups just hosted the Lead-Free Promise Project conference, pulling together 30 organizations from around the Commonwealth dedicated to eliminating lead contamination.

Lead paint was used before the dangers of lead poisoning in children were widely known. Since lead-based paint was more durable than other paint types, it was often used on exterior windows, doors, porches, and window frames. Over time, lead-based paint breaks down, causing chipping and peeling, and creating dust that is rapidly absorbed into a growing child’s brain, bones, and kidneys.

“There is no cure for lead poisoning. Once it’s in your system, you can’t get it out, and the mental and physical effects are irreversible,” said Jeffrey R. Martin, MD, chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Lancaster General Health and member of the statewide Lead-Free Promise Project.

Those effects can be significant, especially for young children: lower IQ, slowed growth, behavioral issues, and hearing and speech-development problems. It can also cause pregnancy problems, including low birth weight; premature birth; damage to the baby’s brain, kidneys, and nervous system; and even miscarriage.

Even though many homes have since been painted over, the lead paint underneath was never actually dealt with. A 2022 community health needs assessment identified 117,314 homes, or 56 percent of Lancaster County homes, at risk of having lead paint hazards.

Any Lancaster County resident—homeowner or renter—can apply to the Lead-Free Families program. Applications are reviewed to ensure they meet eligibility requirements, including that a child under 6 is living in the home or visiting, or a pregnant individual lives there. There are also income guidelines.

If the home is found to have lead hazards, the remediation will be completed at little to no cost to the resident; for rental properties, landlords pay a small fee. Typically, the cost of lead removal varies based on home size and other factors, but the average cost for a Lead-Free Families project is $14,000. In addition, the program will cover the cost of a hotel stay for the family while the work is being done, which can take anywhere from two to 14 days.

Lead-Free Families also provides blood lead screenings for children and pregnant individuals. The program also offers home visits with health care and social service support, community education and outreach, and public policy advocacy and education.

“Lead Free-Families, and its unique connection to a health system, allows health care providers in our community to achieve the broader goal of primary prevention, by eliminating the risk of lead poisoning, and preventing its devastating effects in vulnerable populations,” Martin said.

Keeping Lancaster families safe

Although the program’s primary focus is lead remediation, the team’s home inspections have found other harmful health hazards, including mold, radon, and out-of-date carbon monoxide detectors. The team will help with these as well; for example, by replacing CO and smoke detectors. If the work is out of scope for the lead team, they will refer to other programs or agencies.

Ashley R., the mother of a toddler, said the Lead-Free Families program has been a blessing to her family.

“You do everything you can to keep your child safe—to learn that our house was causing detriment to our child’s health was hard to accept,” she said.“ This program ensured that our family is now safe in our home, and we couldn’t be more thankful.”

Editor’s note: This article includes some material from earlier stories published in 2021, 2022, and 2024.