Grand Rapids Press

Profile: Nature lover, home saver Paul Haan

September 5, 2010

Excerpts:

“Paul’s a professional who could work anywhere,” says Lehman, now executive director of New Development Corp., a Grand Rapids nonprofit that helps people become homeowners. “He’s chosen to devote his energy to gritty neighborhood issues.

“He’s inquisitive,” she says. “He doesn’t just look at a problem. He looks at what’s behind the problem. He’ll analyze it, tweak it, massage it, let it marinate awhile. We need those kinds of thinkers.”

. . .

“He’s a go-to person in this country on the issue,” says Connie Bohatch, managing director of community services for the City of Grand Rapids, who has worked with Haan for years in the city’s lead abatement efforts. Last year, the “Get the Lead Out” collaborative celebrated ridding its 800th home of the toxic paint.

Haan was instrumental in helping the city secure $13.5 million in federal Department of Housing and Urban Development grants to help rid residents’ homes of dangerous lead paint, Bohatch says. His expertise and data — he loves data — helped seal the deal.

Click here for the rest of the story.

Grand Rapids Business Journal

Inside Track: Haan’s mission: lead eradicator

June 28, 2019

Excerpt:

When he came back, City Commissioner George Heartwell, who would later be elected Grand Rapids mayor in 2004, was working with the Community Leadership Institute and Aquinas College on lead contamination, particularly with children. Rather than just meeting people in their homes and educating them, Heartwell and the group were formulating how they could attack it on a systemic level.

“There was a couple-day-old message on my answering machine,” Haan said. “George said, ‘Hey, we got this thing … and I really want to talk to you about helping out.’”

Through the project, Haan helped facilitate grant writing, leading to over $10 million in local incentives. He also helped direct local and statewide campaigns to get legislation passed and increase budget allocations for lead issues. 

The program officially ran for three years, but in its last year, around 2005, the group was looking at the housing climate in Grand Rapids, and there were signs it was about to take a turn for the worse.

“The folks around the table were like, ‘We’ve made a tremendous impact on the lead situation in Grand Rapids,’” Haan said. “It dropped quite precipitously during that time. We’d brought in millions of dollars of federal money to attack the problem, but they said if we stop paying attention to this, the problem is going to come back and bite us.”

To sustain the program, the group knew there had to be an organization in Grand Rapids specifically dedicated not only to ensuring children aren’t lead poisoned, but ensuring they don’t grow up in substandard housing in the first place.

Click here for the rest of the story.

Rapid Growth Grand Rapids

Child’s Play

December 7, 2006

Excerpt:

RG: Why do you think the program has been so successful?

Haan: Economics. Nobody gets in for free. But we've taken an approach that aims to give property owners an incentive to remodel old homes and eliminate the lead problem with the lowest possible cost to the public. Our goal for rental properties, for instance, was to leverage the landlord's investment. 

I mentioned we've done $3.6 million in repairs. That's not counting the landlord match. Often times we'll put $8,000 into a house and the property owner will put in another $5,000 to $6,000. So in reality, we've probably actually leveraged more like $5 million into the neighborhoods.

RG: You sound more like a real estate investor than a social activist.

Haan: This is business. That $5 million goes to laborers, contractors, and suppliers right here in our community, and that's even more important in these tough economic times. There's real business to be had dealing with lead, radon, carbon dioxide, and other children's health issues. This makes good economic sense.

Click here for the rest of the story.