Resident Gives Tour Of Disgusting Mold In His Roosevelt Island Mitchell Lama Westview Apartment - Asks For Help
Roosevelt Island Westview resident Vadim Malinsky has mold in his apartment
Image of Westview Ceiling Mold via Vimeo
and tells us what's on his mind:
Please view my video and hear out my story... for third year now I have had a mold problem in my apartment in Westview... this time mold came with full force. Ceiling in my bedroom, living room, bathroom is covered with black fungus. Dr. Resnick connected my continuos cough and clogged throat to mold allergy. During last visit he advised me to move to another apartment. But as we all know, due to privatization or some kind of other interests Westview management has been reluctant to let anyone in number of available apartments in the building. I exercise and taking care of my condition daily. I swim, walk miles every day. I used to play hockey, volleyball. Never had any allergies. Now it is permanent condition. What next? Asthma, cancer.... I love living on the island but some things are very upsetting here.. Some things just do not make sense.. We are one community, one island, why we get so much negligence from people of authority here all the time... Please pardon my emotional writing, it just I feel really bad about it. Please share, comment, advise.Mr. Malinsky takes us on a tour showing the mold in his apartment.
NYC Department of Health has information on what to do if you have mold in your apartment.
Westview ownership gave notice in May 2012 of its intent to remove Westview from the Mitchell Lama program. Have not heard much of any privatization progress since the May 2012 notice.
8 comments :
Oh God, I am so sorry to see that you are going through this and are sick from this!! We have been in Westview for 31 years. I have never heard of conditions that bad. We did have some mold in our last apt. in 625 in the bathroom that never went away. We are now in 595. I never really feel good, we don't have mold. but our apt. vents are always clogged with thick dust and grease and dirt and dust all over the walls. I am always coughing, etc.
Our eyes are always irritated and we have been to many of our Doctors. I have been having chest pain, shortness of breath, etc. I wonder if it is all related. We need to get the Landlord, David Hirschorn, who doesn't care. He doesn't even seem to want to tell the tenants what is going on to date with the so called privatization and doing illegal Mitchell Lama Warehousing,etc. My Sister and I are always clearing our throats, coughing, etc.
I guess the first question I have is if Mr. Malinsky worked with the landlord on this already. Secondly, if the landlord is of no use, did he call 311? Those are the two things I would try first.
Westview is still a Mitchell-Lama building, I believe. Therefore, he should contact the DHCR (Department of Housing and Community Renewal) and his tenant association. As this seems to be an ongoing problem, he might want to contact his elected officials to get them involved.
Contacting DHCR is a good idea, along with the elected officials.
Most importantly, he should keep track of his symptoms, doctors' appointments, medical reports, dates of diagnoses and how they correlate with the appearance of the mold. Hirschhorn/business has a lot of money/ins, and Mr. Malinsky should bring all the above evidence to a good personal injury lawyer. If Mr. Malinsky can prove the landlord's negligence directly led to an ongoing condition such as asthma, he may collect a large amount of money in a lawsuit.
Of course, that doesn't really compensate Mr. Malinsky for his destroyed health - nothing can. But it will serve as a wake-up call to Hirshhorn to pay attention to tenant complaints, to make needed repairs, to mitigate mold. What does it take for Hirshhorn to correct this out-of-control mold situation in Mr. Malinsky's apartment? Do the mold spores have to get up and start doing a break dance before WV management mitigates this literally life-threatening situation?
He says in the video that the maintenance guys just painted over the mold last summer. When you do that, the mold just grows between the paint layers and comes out again. You need to clean the mold off the ceiling and then paint with mold-resistent paint.
Given the mold and how your floor is buckling, it seems that you have a humidity problem in your apartment in the summer. You should probably purchase a dehumidifier, which will help keep things from getting worse.
Yes, Westview should fix these problems - but since you are dealing with your health, if I were you I would take these matters into my own hands and have them dealt with properly.
The Nectar-Of-Air-Conditioner from the floor above can contribute to the mold problem (at 6:04 in video).
[Said Previously] At one of the Island House meetings with DHCR staff present, a tenant asked about conditions that needed remedy and they felt the managing agent was not giving the proper attention. DHCR Assistant Commissioner Rich McCurnin suggested: notify the managing agent and, if it is not corrected promptly, call him.
Your building is still in M-L. My sense is: DHCR is your quickest escalation path. You should also let your tenants association (Westview Taskforce Inc.) know about your concern, maybe they have a Maintenance Committee that addresses these operational issues. Good luck!
This can only go so far. The resident may already be damaged and trying to mitigate the mold by himself may further harm him. He should get the mold tested to find out what type of mold is growing. Some mold is highly toxic. Here is a page that explains how to kill mold. However, the resident should review the entire website - which is quick /easy to read - before he embarks on mitigating the mold by himself. He has a severe mold problem and may want to have a professional mold mitigation service remove/kill the mold.http://blackmold.awardspace.com/kill-remove-mold.html
I agree - mold isn't something to mess around with, he should at least call an inspector in before doing anything.
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