Mayor Adams’ new ‘lead czar’ is ex-NYCHA official who spearheaded Housing Authority’s communications during lead paint crisis

Jasmine Blake, an ex-spokeswoman for a onetime NYCHA boss accused of lying about lead paint inspections, is expected to become the Adams administration’s point-person on efforts to rid buildings in the city of the dangerous heavy metal, the Daily News has learned.

Blake, who served as a press aide at NYCHA between 2017 and 2019, is set to be formally appointed Tuesday as Mayor Adams’ “lead czar,” according to three sources familiar with the matter. The job will come with the responsibility of coordinating efforts to ensure that both public and private residential buildings across the city are free of lead-based paint, which can be lethal if ingested.

Blake currently serves as the chief of staff to Jessica Katz, Adams’ chief housing officer. She is expected to continue in that role while also taking on the new lead czar responsibilities, the sources said.

A spokesman for Adams confirmed Blake’s appointment. The spokesman said she will not be a “czar,” though, but rather a “citywide lead compliance officer.”

In a text Tuesday morning, Blake told The News: “Nothing to say at this time.”

The new position appears similar to the “senior adviser for citywide lead prevention” job that ex-Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia was appointed to in 2018 by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio following a string of damning revelations about the heavy metal being detected in NYCHA complexes.

Around the same time as Garcia’s appointment, Blake was a spokeswoman for Shola Olatoye, NYCHA’s chair and chief executive.

In January 2018, the Department of Investigation concluded Olatoye had falsely said in sworn testimony before the City Council that 4,200 NYCHA workers had received special training on inspecting public housing apartments for lead paint. In fact, the Department of Investigation found more than 85% of those NYCHA staffers never received such training.

In a statement pushing back on the watchdog agency’s finding at the time, Blake said Olayote “was truthful and relied on the facts provided to her. She was told staff had been trained.”

A few months later, Olatoye resigned from NYCHA amid mounting outrage over her alleged lies. Blake left NYCHA about a year later.

Since 2012, NYCHA has admitted multiple times to falsely certifying it completed all required lead paint inspections and cleanups.

As first reported by The News in 2018, 820 children under 6 who lived in NYCHA apartments between 2012 and 2016 tested positive for levels of blood-lead from 5 to 9 micrograms per deciliter — levels that trigger concern by the federal Centers for Disease Control.

In response to the damning findings, the de Blasio administration drastically ramped up lead inspections at NYCHA complexes. It also began screening private apartments for the toxic metal.

With Michael Gartland