Mold deja vu
Toxic mold found at apartment complex near recently evacuated one
A federally subsidized apartment complex is allegedly teeming with toxic mold — an outbreak similar to one that forced the evacuation of a nearby complex, an attorney claims.
The first mold infestation came to a head in June, when the Atlanta Housing Authority started moving clients out of more than 100 units at Moreland Woods Apartments, in south Atlanta. The mold was so entrenched that it sickened at least 200 residents, according to attorney Charlie Peebles, who reached a partial settlement of $2 million with the apartment owners.
Now Peebles and mold consultant Dave Bennett, with environmentalist firm Southeastern Environmental, have found what they are calling a moldier community: Villa Monte. This one’s not under the purview of the Atlanta Housing Authority but of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which subsidizes each tenant’s rent under a contract with Villa Monte owner Bradley Properties.
Bradley vice president Viveca Callahan says Villa Monte’s mold is nothing like Moreland Woods’. She says a routine inspection in July of all 400 Villa Monte units turned up less than “a handful of apartments” with mold.
“It’s our feeling that he’s just trying to make a case where there is not a case,” Callahan says of Peebles. “It’s like he went out to solicit cases.”
Last week, Peebles called Villa Monte tenants to a meeting. About 150 residents — all of them women and children — packed the lobby of the Thomasville Gym.
“From what we’ve already seen at Villa Monte, the mold situation is worse,” Peebles told the crowd. “Much worse than at Moreland Woods.”
Among those seated in the gym’s metal folding chairs was Portia Johnson, who’s lived 30 years in Villa Monte. Johnson, upon noticing mold spreading from her wall up the headboard of her cherry wood bed, called Bennett in August. On telephone poles throughout the neighborhood surrounding Moreland Woods and Villa Monte, Bennett had posted a sign: “Mold and mildew, call this number.”
Bennett says when he came to Johnson’s apartment to collect samples, he realized he might have another Moreland Woods on his hands. The mold, he claims, was rampant.
Bennett has tested 15 apartments and received lab results for five. His prognosis: Compared to Moreland Woods, where he tested samples from 50 units, there is more mold growing in certain Villa Monte units, with higher concentrations of toxic bacteria.
He blames a faulty air conditioning system, which leaked water throughout the bowels of the buildings and created an atmosphere favorable to fungus. “It’s under the floors,” he says. “It’s coming up through the floors. It’s inside the walls of the apartment.”
Callahan says Bradley Properties’ Florida office heard about Peebles’ meeting and sent maintenance workers to several buildings to patch the air conditioning leak and replace some of the moldy drywall.
“If residents at Villa Monte have a problem,” she says, “they just need to call management, and we’ll take care of it.”
She says she is not familiar with Peebles’ allegations that, like at Moreland Woods, Villa Monte’s residents are showing signs of bacterial illness.
Johnson describes her guest bedroom wall as so eaten with mold she could push her finger through it. She says that’s the room where her 2-year-old grandson slept on the cherry wood bed. The child, who lives with her, suffers asthma and requires the assistance of a breathing machine.
Johnson also says she’s repeatedly complained to management and has written letters as long ago as November to Villa Monte’s owner. Callahan denies that Bradley Properties received mold complaints prior to last month.
HUD spokeswoman Linda Allen says Bradley Properties has not informed HUD of the mold infestation — nor did HUD inspectors notice the mold during its routine monitoring of 25 apartments this summer.
“If a resident has a concern,” Allen says, “and they’ve sent it to the management and they’ve given them a chance to resolve it and they’re not getting what they need, they should call this office” (404-331-5001, extension 2326).
Allen also says that although it’s HUD’s mission, by law, to provide safe, decent and sanitary housing, the apartment owners should have addressed the problem.
Peebles, whose had more than 100 residents seek his representation, said, “We will be demanding from the owners that they assist us.”
He pointed out that he’s hoping for the same cooperation he got at Moreland Woods, where owners quickly paid a settlement. But he’s willing to take other action.
“I’ve prepared and am ready to file a class-action lawsuit,” Peebles told the tenants, “representing everyone in the complex.”