State, local officials get involved in Lithonia mold case
2/22/07
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
Twins Sheldon and Weldon Freeman play in their apartment run by the Housing Authority of the City of Lithonia. Mold covers the walls of their three-bedroom home. Photos by Brian Egeston.
Visible mold grows on the walls of the twins’ bedroom.
In addition to mold, the apartment is also infested with roaches.
Weldon breathes in asthma medicine he takes through an inhaler. |
State Sen. Ronald Ramsey, D-Decatur, is asking U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson this week to request that an independent federal monitor take over the Housing Authority of the City of Lithonia [HACL].
The HACL, which runs a group of public and Section 8 housing, has received dozens of complaints recently from residents concerned with mold, roaches and other disrepairs to many of the units.
A report by The Champion Online last week, told the story of resident Shannika Grant, a single mother with four children in an HACL apartment. Two of her children, 4-year-old twins Sheldon and Weldon, have acute asthma.
The story, which included professional testing by All Stucco & Mold Inspections Inc., showed the level of mold in Grant’s apartment was greater than 12,000 spores per cubic meter.
“That’s dangerously high, said All Stucco President Scott Zaeske. “I do not recommend anyone inhabiting the premises without proper respirators.”
Grant, who has since left the apartment due to the unsafe conditions, said she has tried for more than a year to get HACL to do something about the conditions. Documentation shows that Grant sought help from a physician, a DeKalb health inspector and finally HUD in 2006 to address the problem.
New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is helping Ramsey house Grant and her children in a hotel off Evans Mill Road.
“All they ever told me was to put bleach on the mold and buy a de-humidifier,” said Grant. “I tried and tried, but it never went away.”
Ramsey said he took the action after he interviewed a dozen HACL residents, made visits to some of their apartments and read a news story by The Champion that showed the unsafe mold levels.
“I’m asking for an emergency intervention,” said Ramsey. “I’m asking HUD [the Department of Housing and Urban Development] to send an independent monitor.”
Martha Calloway, director of the HACL, said in an earlier statement that “this housing authority has done everything in a good faith effort to fix Miss Grant’s apartment. We’ve tried to get in that apartment to do repairs, but she refused. We also offered her another apartment, but she refused that, too,” she said.
Ramsey said there are no excuses for the conditions he’s witnessed.
“It’s not OK, someone didn’t come out and do their job,” he said. “That mold has existed for years. Someone at a level above HACL needs to intervene.”
Commissioner Lee May, in whose district the authority lies, also saw some of the conditions in some of the HACL apartments.
“Something needs to happen,” he said. “Either a change in management or a change in structure.”
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, informed about some of the problems with HACL, sent inquiries recently to HUD’s regional office in Atlanta.
In a letter dated Feb. 8 from HUD Regional Director Bob Young to Sen. Johnny Isakson, it said that HACL had “responded promptly” to Grant’s plight and that “the repairs were made acceptable to the DeKalb County Board of Health inspector.”
A Board of Health spokesperson said she knew of no such report “because we don’t indicate whether repairs are acceptable.”
Although BOH inspector Eb Adedun checked Grant’s apartment in August 2006, when he found “visible signs of mold,” he said he has not since inspected the residence.
When asked whether he was concerned that mold levels in a housing project HUD oversees are dangerously high Young said, “If it were true, it would be a concern to me,” he said. “If people are doing wrong, it will be corrected.”
Ramsey, who met with Congressman Johnson Feb. 21, was not convinced.
“Clearly the regional people don’t get it,” said Ramsey. “Someone from Washington needs to look into this.”
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Tests show mold levels in housing project ‘dangerous’
2/16/07
by Andy Phelan and Brian Egeston
Staff Writers
Professional inspectors All Stucco & Mold Inspections Inc. said Friday the level of mold they found in Shannika Grant’s public housing apartment was dangerously high.
In all three bedrooms, including twins Sheldon and Weldon, 4, who have acute asthma, the level of mold is greater than 12,000 spores per cubic meter. Compared with the outdoors, which carried counts of 80 to 240 spores per cubic meter, in quality of air indoors is considerably worse, said All Stucco President Scott Zaeske.
“I do not recommend anyone inhabiting the premises without proper respirators,” said Zaeske, who received 24-hour turnaround of the test results from EMSL Analytical, Inc. in Marietta. “Their breathing in bad stuff.”
Grant said she asked the housing authority to put her in another apartment months ago, but was told to clean the mold with bleach and purchase a de-humidifier.
In Stucco’s report, they said “bleach will not clean mold off of porous surfaces such as drywall and wood as it will come back. These type surfaces must be removed and incinerated. By trying to wipe surfaces clean such as drywall all that is being done is to make the possible mold spores airborne spreading to other areas.”
While the more toxic mold stachybotrys was not present in the apartment, forms such as penicillium and cladosporium spores filled Grant’s home.
“Remediation to remove all effected drywall, carpeting and furniture is needed to immediately,” said Zaeske , who indicated in his report that the reason so much mold forms in Grant’s apartment is water pools along the rear wall due to slope of the hill behind the home. There is an area at the rear of the building where water intrusion and no drainage..
While Grant has been offered another apartment within the housing authority, she said she just wants to get out of the area.
“I’m worried I’ll just get another apartment just as bad,” she said.
Mold Testing done by All Stucco & Mold Inspections Inc, 770 590-7880
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Mold levels in housing project may be unlivable
2/15/2007
by Andy Phelan and Brian Egeston | Staff Writers
andy@dekalbchamp.com | be@brianwrites.com
Because twins Sheldon and Weldon Freeman, 4, were born with asthma, they spend at least 20 minutes a day taking treatment through inhalers.
But even more dangerous is the fact that they live in a mold-infested apartment run by the Housing Authority of the City of Lithonia [HACL], which answers to the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD].
In a follow up by The Champion to a story on its front page this week concerning a family living in potentially unhealthy conditions, mold experts completed a thorough test of their mother Shannika Grant’s apartment.
Professional inspectors All Stucco & Mold Inspections Inc., hired by The Champion, suggested the conditions they witnessed and tested are probably unlivable. Scientific data, which will available Friday, Feb. 16, will indicate the type of mold present, the concentration in the air Sheldon and Weldon breathe and will compare the air inside to conditions outside.
Grant, who has been evicted by the housing authority in part for allegedly not telling HACL about the mold and roach infestation in her apartment, insists she did inform not only the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but HACL as well. According to a letter from HACL attorney, Grant and her kids will be evicted March 2.
Grant said she's tried to clean the mold, but it won't go away. She said the HACL told her to just use bleach and buy a de-humidifier.
HUD and HACL insist they did everything they could and “responded promptly and corrected the condition.”
Grant said she's been seeking help with conditions in her apartment since the spring of 2006.
HUD officials inspected the site Feb. 14, but had not yet provided The Champion with a copy of the report.
According to the EPA Web site, exposure to this level of mold can cause severe reactions that may include fever and shortness of breath. Some people with chronic lung illnesses, such as obstructive lung disease, may develop mold infections in their lungs.
For small children like the Freemans with weak immune systems, this level can be lethal.
Results of the mold test will be posted online Feb. 16 at about 3 p.m. and in The Champion-Free Press on Feb. 23. |
