Part 2 of our series about the lead contamination health crisis in Indiana focuses on the EPA’s response, and the state government’s non-response, and the possibility that the local housing authority continues to rent out units in the contaminated and condemned West Calumet Complex.

“DO NOT PLAY IN THE DIRT OR AROUND THE MULCH” where you live, signed, The EPA. That’s what the signs say all over West Camulet, an affordable housing complex in the industrial region of Indiana, which is being forcibly evacuated and demolished due to lead contamination. In 1972, city, state, and federal officials agreed to build the housing development on top of land contaminated by three lead factories.

Three weeks ago, West Calumet residents received a letter from the Anthony Copeland, the first African American mayor of East Chicago, Indiana, telling them that they would be forcibly removed from their homes due to lead contamination. Soon after, the EPA arrived with four trailers and set up camp, informing residents that they would soon be offering in-home clean-up operations. They put down mulch as a stop-gap measure to protect children from the lead particles embedded in the soil, put up signs, and passed out flyers about living with contamination.

TYT Politics’ reporters Jordan Chariton and Eric Byler investigate an inter-generational tragedy decades in the making. This is Part 21\ of an ongoing series.