Eco-Ohio Resource Center
The Eco-Ohio Resource Center
One place for free, plain-language guidance on lead safety, healthy homes, property maintenance, and responsible rehabilitation — open to homeowners, renters, parents, landlords, and trades across Toledo and Northwest Ohio.
Free For the North is the Resource Center's program for residents. It takes the same guidance directly to households in Toledo's North End with free lead-safety consultations, basic property walkthroughs, and education — our business supporting the neighborhood we call home.
Eco-Ohio Resource Center
Know Your Property
Practical, plain-language guidance for property owners, renters, parents, and trades in Toledo and Northwest Ohio. These resources are free to use whether or not you ever become a customer.
Lead Safety
- Lead Safety 101: why pre-1978 paint matters
- Recognizing deteriorated paint
- Reducing lead-dust exposure at home
- Windows, doors, and friction surfaces
- When to contact a qualified professional
Healthy Homes
- Moisture, ventilation, and indoor air
- Keeping dust down during everyday cleaning
- Safer surfaces in rooms children use most
- Talking with your healthcare provider about testing
Property Maintenance
- Seasonal exterior paint checks
- Stabilizing chipping or peeling surfaces
- Gutters, water intrusion, and paint failure
- Prioritizing repairs on a limited budget
Home Rehabilitation
- Planning a rehab in an older home
- Lead-safe renovation basics
- Repair, encapsulate, or replace
- Sequencing work so lead steps come first
Environmental Responsibility
- Responsible material disposal
- Recycling and salvage when practical
- Lower-VOC product options
- Insulation and air sealing where appropriate
Landlord Resources
- Toledo's lead-safe requirements for pre-1978 rentals
- Turnover planning around lead work
- Documentation and recordkeeping
- Tenant communication during work
Contractor Resources
- Lead-safe work practices on the job site
- Containment, wet methods, and HEPA cleanup
- Scope development for lead-related portions
- Coordinating with licensed inspectors and risk assessors
Community Resources
- Free For the North: free lead-safety help in the North End
- Free For the North: resident education and advocacy
- How to report a lead-paint concern
- Local contractor network interest
Government / Public Resources
- Ohio Department of Health lead program
- CDC childhood lead poisoning prevention
- EPA lead-safe renovation rules
- HUD healthy homes and lead hazard control
Information on this website is provided for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Project requirements vary. Contact Eco-Ohio to discuss your specific project.
Outside Authorities
Government & Public Health Resources
Eco-Ohio is not affiliated with these agencies. Their published guidance is the best starting point for official information.
Eco-Ohio Pages
Keep Reading on This Site
- Toledo's Lead-Safe Law: What Owners Should Know
- Service List
- Landlord & Investor Guidance
- Contractor Support & Network
- Full Service List
Questions about a specific property? Call Eco-Ohio at 419-561-4289.
A Resource Center Program · For Residents
Free For the North: Three Free Services for Neighbors
Free For the North grows out of the Eco-Ohio Resource Center and is aimed squarely at residents. It is deliberately limited to what our business can reliably give away at no cost, so the program stays sustainable and honest.
Check Your Area
Is your property in the North End?
Free For the North is focused on Toledo's North End, primarily ZIP code 43608.
Free Lead-Safety Consultation
A free educational conversation about lead in older housing — what to look for, what usually causes problems, and what a reasonable next step looks like.
- Common lead hazards in older homes
- Deteriorated paint
- Windows and doors
- Dust hazards
- Renovation concerns
- Lead-safe practices
- Recommended next steps
This is an educational consultation. It is not a lead inspection, risk assessment, lead testing, or clearance examination, and it does not replace those regulated services.
Free Property Lead-Hazard Walkthrough
A basic visual walkthrough for qualifying North End property owners to point out obvious areas that may warrant attention.
- Deteriorated paint
- Friction surfaces
- Impact surfaces
- Deteriorated windows
- Exterior paint deterioration
- Areas that may require additional evaluation
This is an educational, basic visual walkthrough only. It does not replace regulated inspection, testing, risk assessment, or clearance services, and it does not determine whether lead is present.
Free Lead-Safety Education
Free written guidance published on this website and available to anyone, whether or not you ever hire us.
- Lead Safety 101
- Recognizing Deteriorated Paint
- Lead-Safe Home Maintenance
- Lead-Safe Renovation Basics
- Reducing Lead-Dust Exposure
- Windows, Doors & Lead Hazards
- When to Contact a Qualified Professional
Educational information only. It is not legal, medical, or regulatory advice.
Free For the North currently provides free lead-safety consultations, basic visual property walkthroughs, and lead-safety education. Additional testing, materials, equipment, regulated services, abatement work, or third-party services may involve costs or require other funding or resources.
Free For the North Hotline
Call Our Lead-Paint Hotline
Talk with Eco-Ohio about lead-safety questions, a property concern, or how to get started with the free program.
This is not an emergency line. For a medical concern, contact a healthcare provider.
What This Is — and Isn't
Honest Limits Keep the Program Real
- Free consultations and walkthroughs are educational. They do not certify a property as lead-safe or lead-free.
- Regulated inspections, risk assessments, dust-wipe testing, and clearance examinations must be performed by licensed professionals.
- Free For the North does not include free abatement, free construction, free materials, or unlimited free labor.
Free For the North · A Resource Center Program
The North End. Healthier Homes. Stronger Community.
This page is here for residents and parents in Toledo’s North End — a community of families, history, culture, homes, businesses, and schools. Learn about lead paint, report a lead-paint concern, find help, and see how Eco-Ohio’s lead-safety, rehabilitation, and environmentally responsible construction work connects to stronger neighborhoods.
Image shown is illustrative of older Northwest Ohio housing and does not depict a specific Eco-Ohio project.
For Residents & Parents
A Place to Learn, Report, and Get Help
If you live in or care about The North End, this page is for you. Learn how lead paint affects families, report a lead-paint concern, and find local help and trusted resources — all in one place.
Report a Lead-Paint Concern
If you suspect lead paint in your home, a rental, or a property you know about, tell us. You don’t have to know for certain — describe what you’re seeing and we’ll help you figure out the next step, whether that’s testing, repairs, or reporting a problem property.
Our Lead-Paint Hotline connects you with Eco-Ohio. We can listen, answer questions, and help you understand your options. This is not an emergency line — for a medical emergency, call 911.
Learn & Find Resources
Trusted information from public health agencies, plus Eco-Ohio’s own pages on the law, services, and help for owners.
- CDC — Lead PreventionHow lead affects children, where it comes from, and how to lower exposure.
- EPA — LeadFederal guidance on lead paint, dust, and renovations in older homes.
- HUD — Healthy HomesHealthy Homes program and lead hazard control resources.
- Ohio Department of Health — Lead ProgramOhio childhood lead poisoning prevention, testing, and local data.
Community
Why The North End Matters
Neighborhoods are more than buildings. They're families, history, businesses, schools, streets, memories, and generations of people who call a place home.
The North End is an important part of Toledo’s story and future. Eco-Ohio wants our work to be about more than completing construction projects. We want to be part of responsible efforts that help preserve properties, improve housing conditions, address environmental hazards, and support healthier communities.
Lead-related requirements can vary based on the property, project scope, applicable regulations, and whether children or other occupants are present.
The Numbers Behind the Work
Who Lead Paint Hurts Most
Lead exposure is not distributed equally. Decades of older housing, disinvestment, and environmental inequality mean that children in neighborhoods like The North End — and Black children in particular — carry a disproportionate share of the burden.
64%+
Ohio reports that more than 64% of housing units statewide were built before 1980 and are likely to contain some lead-based paint. Much of The North End's housing is older still.
Source: Ohio Department of Health
22
The Ohio Department of Health designates 22 local ZIP codes — including North End ZIP 43608 — as high-risk, where blood lead testing is required for children under 6.
Source: Ohio Department of Health
2–5×
Across national surveys, non-Hispanic Black children ages 1–5 have had elevated blood lead levels at roughly two to five times the rate of white children — driven in large part by older housing conditions, not by anything about the children themselves.
Source: CDC (NHANES)
3.5 µg/dL
CDC uses a blood lead reference value of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to identify children with higher-than-typical exposure, and states there is no safe level of lead in blood.
Source: CDC
Statistics reflect published national and state research (CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; Ohio Department of Health lead program data). They describe population-level patterns, not any individual property or neighborhood, and are provided for general information only.
Doing the Work
How Eco-Ohio Is Fighting Back
Real change in The North End won't come from talk alone. It comes from fixing the actual sources of lead exposure, one property at a time. Here's the part we can directly contribute.
Lead Abatement Where It Matters Most
Lead hazards live in the paint, dust, and soil of older homes. Reducing those hazards at the source — stabilization, encapsulation, component work, containment, and HEPA cleanup — is the direct answer to the disparity.
Buying and Fixing Lead Houses
We purchase older, distressed, and lead-affected properties and rehabilitate them ourselves — turning houses others walk away from into healthier housing instead of letting them sit and deteriorate.
Helping Owners Meet the Law
Toledo's Lead Safe ordinance now requires pre-1978 rental properties to pass clearance inspection. We help owners get there — hazard correction, clearance preparation, and documentation support.
Education and Advocacy
We work to raise awareness about lead safety, healthy housing, and responsible rehabilitation in the neighborhoods that need it most, and to collaborate with organizations already doing this work.
We don't claim to be able to solve a problem this large alone. We aim to be one working part of a broader community effort, alongside families, organizations, and the City.
Advocacy
Advocacy Through Action
For Eco-Ohio, advocacy isn't only about talking about problems. It's also about doing practical work that can make a difference.
Healthy Homes
Lead safety, lead abatement, responsible renovation, and healthier living environments.
Responsible Rehabilitation
Improve existing properties instead of allowing preventable deterioration to continue, whenever rehabilitation is practical.
Environmental Responsibility
Use environmentally responsible methods and materials whenever practical and appropriate.
Community Revitalization
Support efforts that contribute to stronger, safer, healthier Toledo neighborhoods.
The North End + Eco-Ohio's Work
What Our Work Can Contribute
Each part of what we do connects back to the same idea: safer, healthier, better-maintained housing.
Lead Safety
Older homes can contain lead-based paint and other hazards. Eco-Ohio brings specialized lead-abatement and lead-safety knowledge to property rehabilitation.
Our servicesProperty Rehabilitation
Responsible rehabilitation can help preserve existing housing and return neglected properties to productive use.
Our servicesEnvironmentally Responsible Construction
We look for opportunities to reduce waste, reuse materials, recycle materials, use lower-impact products, and make environmentally conscious decisions when practical.
About Eco-OhioContractor Support
We help contractors navigate lead-safety-related project needs, documentation, planning, and compliance-related considerations within the scope of our services.
Contractor supportProperty Owner Education
We want property owners to understand the issues affecting their properties and the options available to them.
For landlords & investorsEnvironmental Responsibility
Building Better. Wasting Less.
Environmental care shows up in ordinary decisions on ordinary jobs — what gets contained, what gets saved, and what never has to go to the landfill.
Methods, products, and improvements are evaluated per project. Nothing here is a guarantee of energy savings, environmental outcomes, or specific materials being used on your property.
- Responsible material disposal
- Recycling when practical
- Reuse and salvage when feasible
- Lower-VOC products when appropriate
- Durable materials
- Energy-efficiency improvements where appropriate
- Water-efficiency improvements where appropriate
- Insulation and air-sealing improvements where appropriate
- Responsible demolition practices
- Lead-safe work practices
- Reducing unnecessary construction waste
- Rehabilitation of existing structures when practical
Community Advocacy
Our Advocacy Goes Beyond the Job Site
We want to educate, participate, collaborate, and do the work. These are the interests that guide how we show up in the neighborhoods we work in.
- Lead-safety awareness
- Healthy housing
- Responsible property maintenance
- Environmental responsibility
- Housing preservation
- Community education
- Responsible neighborhood investment
- Supporting property owners
- Encouraging responsible rehabilitation
From Property to Possibility
- 1Older or distressed property
- 2Assessment
- 3Lead-safety and environmental considerations
- 4Responsible rehabilitation
- 5Improved property
- 6Healthier housing
- 7Stronger neighborhood
This is a conceptual representation of Eco-Ohio’s approach, not a promise that every property will follow exactly this process.
Community Impact
Smaller Projects Can Create Bigger Ripple Effects.
A repaired property can improve more than one building. Responsible rehabilitation can help in ways that carry down the block.
- Preserve existing housing
- Reduce blight and deterioration
- Address health and safety hazards
- Improve property conditions
- Reduce unnecessary construction waste
- Create opportunities for productive property use
- Contribute to neighborhood pride
Eco-Ohio is one contractor among many. We aim to contribute to and support neighborhood improvement efforts, not to claim credit for them.
North End Property Owners
Own Property in Toledo's North End?
If your property needs repairs, rehabilitation, lead-safety work, cleanup, or simply a new direction, Eco-Ohio may be able to help.
Responsible Real Estate Investment
Eco-Ohio also participates in real estate investing. Depending on the property and the situation, we may purchase properties, rehabilitate properties, hold select properties as investments, wholesale select properties to other investors, work with contractors and investors, and identify opportunities for responsible property improvement. Investment and community responsibility can work together.
Nothing here is an offer or a projection of investment returns.
Community Partnerships
Strong Communities Are Built Through Collaboration
Organizations and community partners we hope to collaborate with.
These are categories of potential future collaboration. They do not represent existing partnerships, endorsements, or affiliations.
Let’s Build a Healthier Toledo.
Whether you’re a parent, a property owner, a contractor, an investor, a community organization, or someone who simply cares about the future of Toledo neighborhoods, we’d like to hear from you. Need help with lead paint? Call Our Lead-Paint Hotline or report a concern below.
Get Started
Request Free North End Help
Tell us where the property is and what you're seeing. We'll follow up to talk through what free assistance we can provide.
Free For the North currently provides free lead-safety consultations, basic visual property walkthroughs, and lead-safety education. Additional testing, materials, equipment, regulated services, abatement work, or third-party services may involve costs or require other funding or resources.