The Chicago Housing Authority must pay more than $24 million to two residents who sued over alleged lead paint poisoning of their two children, a Cook County jury decided Wednesday.
The case, filed in January 2022, focused on Shanna Jordan, the mother of Jah’mir Collins, now 10, and Morgan Collins, the mother of Amiah Collins, now 6, who sued CHA, the Habitat Company, East Lake Management Group and Environmental Design International, alleging that the defendants knew their unit had lead-based paint and that their children suffered “severe lead poisoning” while living in the unit. The unit was owned by CHA and is located at 7715 North Marshfield in Rogers Park.
The property was managed by Habitat from 2016 to 2019 and then by East Lake from 2019 to 2022. Environmental Design International conducted an inspection for lead-based paint in 2017 on behalf of CHA and found lead-based paint, the suit said.
After a roughly seven-week trial, the jury found CHA responsible for the children’s injuries, including past and future damages. Habitat and East Lake were found not guilty. Environmental Design International settled with the plaintiffs in 2023, said Matthew S. Sims, an attorney for the plaintiffs, and the settlement agreement is confidential.
“Lead poisoning causes irreversible damage to children that causes lifelong problems,” Sims said in a news release. “What happened to these children was completely avoidable if only the CHA had followed the law. … The CHA needs to have a moment of self-reflection after this verdict and think about what it will do to make sure this never happens again.”
Sims said his clients declined to be interviewed. Shanna Jordan is also the mother of Morgan Collins and the grandmother of Amiah.
In a statement to the Tribune, CHA said, “While we continue to express sympathy for the Jordan and Collins families, the Chicago Housing Authority is disappointed in today’s verdict and are reviewing our options.” CHA did not respond to additional questions.
Habitat said the jury “correctly found that Habitat was innocent” in a statement. East Lake declined to comment. Environmental Design International did not immediately respond to a Tribune request for comment.
Lead paint poisons poor Chicago kids as city spends millions less on cleanup
The lawsuit said that CHA had known the property had lead-based paint since 1992 and faced code violations by the city in the early 2000s because of the hazard.
Shanna Jordan and Morgan Collins moved into the unit in October 2014 after having been on the waitlist for CHA housing for years, Sims said. Shanna Jordan was nine months pregnant with Jah’mir at the time, and Morgan Collins gave birth to Amiah in March 2018, according to the suit.
CHA had the unit tested for lead-based paint while the plaintiffs were living there and found lead-based paint, the suit said. CHA put the findings into its property management system, a system that its property managers had access to, and did not notify the plaintiffs, according to the suit.
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In November 2019, Jah’mir was “medically assessed and determined to have suffered lead poisoning,” which led the Chicago Department of Public Health to inspect the family’s home for lead hazards, the suit said. The department notified the family of lead hazards in their unit in September 2020, the suit said, and Amiah was medically assessed shortly after the department’s notice and was also found to be suffering from lead poisoning.
Jah’mir and Amiah suffered “serious and permanent physical and mental injuries” and will remain disabled and continue to have pain, suffering and emotional distress, the suit said.
This is not the first time CHA approved housing for residents who then were later diagnosed with lead poisoning. Dozens of children were found to have been poisoned by brain-damaging lead while living in homes and apartments declared safe by the Chicago Housing Authority, a Tribune investigation found in 2017. In 2015, the Tribune reported on a broader phenomenon of lead poisoning plaguing children living in some of the poorest Chicago neighborhoods.
