Public Housing Residents Claim NYCHA Just Paints Over Mold Problems
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's a cry for help from residents of New York City public housing.
Many have been complaining about mold in their city apartments for years, but charge the New York City Housing Authority never really confronts the problem.
"I've been having this problem over ten years now, with the mold. We [call] the complaint center, we put in a ticket and what they do is they come and they paint right over it and within three months, the mold starts to grow back again," Rosanna De La Cuadra told 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks.
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As a result, De La Cuadra's daughter has asthma and she and other residents are demanding NYCHA solve the problem once and for all.
Patricia Gorritz, who lives in the Taft Houses in East Harlem, is begging NYCHA to get rid of the mold in her apartment before it kills her and her two children.
"My children have asthma...but now I developed a lung, respiratory infection, which now I'm having a problem. And if I can't take care of them, who will?" Gorritz asked.
Gorritz said she wants the problem repaired or other accommodations to be made.
"If they can't do it, then get us out of there because...hopefully we have a chance to get healthy again by being moved of there," she said.
The city has admitted the mold is a problem, but claims a majority of the issues have been addressed.
Formal letters sent to NYCHA by the civic group, the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, on Tuesday ask for accommodations for affected residents.
Another New York City-based non-profit group, Natural Resources Defense Council, is demanding the mold problem be fixed while threatening a federal lawsuit.
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