The stately, stone twin house on a hill in Germantown was 125 years old, and Emmalee and Jason MacDonald basked in visions of starting, and raising, a family there. A wall of windows lets the sun into a spacious, open kitchen, which was cool considering Jason’s background in the food industry. And it had a wood-burning fireplace, a flagstone patio, marble countertops, a huge basement, four bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. They bought it in 2012. A pair of children would soon follow. Things were going according to plan, but five years in, their dreams turned to the sort of nightmares that consume a family’s every waking moment. Instead of savoring their home on West Price Street, they’ll soon post a For Sale sign out front of the house they no longer occupy. Who’s to blame for their dream falling apart? The City of Philadelphia, the MacDonalds say, which dragged them into court and painted them, in legal documents, as slumlords – even as they worked night and day to ensure their home was safe for their two young sons. AN ALL-TOO-COMMON PHILADELPHIA STORY Stories about childhood lead poisoning are nothing new in Philadelphia, an old city with old homes and walls covered in old paint. Realtors know it to the point of saying buyers and sellers accept it as the local norm. That reality prompted the creation of a Lead and Healthy Homes Program in the city Health Department which issues reports like the one titled “Lead-Free Kids: Preventing Lead Poisoning in Philadelphia”… [Read full story]
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