‘WE LIVE IN HELL,’ GALVESTON TENANTS SAY
Residents allege they’re getting sick from mold in HUD-funded apartments and nothing is being done to fix the issues
When a 15-yearold who lives in a Galveston public housing complex wound up in the hospital for a week hooked up to oxygen, the doctors told her mother it might be the mold.
One building over in the same complex, Jessie Jordan’s 12-year-old grandson can’t stop coughing. She doesn’t much like being in the unit either. Being inside makes it hard to breathe.
And 65-year-old Betty Dergin, who’s lived in the apartments for three decades, said her latest apartment had an air conditioner that leaked so badly that mold crawled up the closet beside it.
All the women live in Sandpiper Cove, a privately owned, 192-unit apartment complex in Galveston that’s subsidized through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. They say they’ve seen problems with mold escalate in the past few months and had trouble getting responses from management, HUD or the city of Galveston.
The tenants think the mold is a result of constant leaking in the apartments and broken air conditioning units. It’s not an uncommon problem in older apartments and damp areas, but can cause trouble
breathing, throat, eye and skin irritation and lung infections in people who already have lung problems.
HUD has taken notice of earlier issues at Sandpiper. Sandpiper Cove failed its last HUD inspection in May. Inspectors found missing smoke detectors, cockroaches, clogged toilets and damaged ceilings and doors. Valerie Jerome, spokesperson for the complex’s Ohio-based owner Millennia Housing, said in a statement that the company had “completed repairs identified in the most recent HUD inspection.”
Jerome added that she was “not aware of complaints regarding escalating mold issues,” and that there had been no mold testing. She said on-site management “promptly addresses the issue.”
The city of Galveston could cite the complex if it fell below city code standards. But the city marshal, responsible for code enforcement, declined to comment on enforcement actions or even whether it received any complaints.
Patricia Campbell, the spokesperson for the HUD region that oversees Galveston, said there were three complaints filed about mold since October. Management, she said, had taken corrective actions in all three. HUD contracts with the complex’s owner and subsidizes the tenants’ rent; depending on what they make, tenants pay as low as $25 or up to 30 percent of their income as rent.
“They just paint over it,” said the mother of the 15year-old who spent a week at the hospital. She’s lived at Sandpiper Cove for five years. She did not want to be identified because she is afraid that management will harass or find a way to evict her. “But it’s wrong with HUD too. It’s HUD. HUD pays their rent to live in a … mansion while we live in hell.”
‘Ain’t fixing nothing’
Jordan’s daughter keeps threatening to come take her out of Sandpiper Cove if the situation doesn’t get better. Jordan’s daughter, who lives across the island, can’t really afford to care for her. But she says she’ll make it work.
“We just in bad shape over here,” Jordan said. “Bad, bad, bad shape.”
Jordan, 62, has lived at Sandpiper Cove for eight years with her developmentally disabled son and her 12-year-old grandson. She got a cancer diagnosis two months ago. Being inside makes it even harder for her to breathe. Her bathroom has spots of green and black that she suspects is mold. Her grandson wheezes.
She said she tries to complain to the regional manager but has a hard time getting ahold of her. When she does, Jordan said, the manager dismisses her with a nickname: “Messy Jessie.”
Millennia did not comment on Jordan’s allegation. In response to previous inquiries, Jerome told the Chronicle that the company planned on doing major renovations at the property. She did not reply to an email asking the status of renovations.
“If it’s taken all this time, and they don’t come, they ain’t fixing nothing,” she said. “So I need to fix my ass outta here.”
But there’s really nowhere to go. The mother of the 15-year-old who wound up in the hospital said if she didn’t live at Sandpiper Cove, she and her daughter would be on the streets. She doesn’t make enough as a home health aide to support them both; Galveston demolished much of its public housing after Hurricane Ike in 2008 and has failed to rebuild the missing units, and rental sites calculate the average rent in Galveston to be just over $1,000.
Campbell, the HUD spokesperson, said the first complaint in October was about a bathtub that showed mold, not mildew. The second complainant, in late November, insisted the apartment did have mold; management said it didn’t.
In the case of the third tenant, Campbell said, management found the unit “extremely unsanitary” and said mold or mildew was caused by piled up wet clothes.
Dergin thinks that is referring to her, and she disagrees on the cause. She has lived in Sandpiper Cove for 38 years, and in her current apartment for two. Her air conditioner, she said, has leaked through the wall, causing what she says is mold to crawl up the walls and into her clothes. Her air conditioner was finally repaired, she said, and the repairman told her as much. She thinks it’s the cause of the bumps and scabs on her legs.
Now she has three trash bags full of moldy clothes that she can’t move on her own. She pointed to the side of a cabinet by the air unit, where she said management had sprayed a mold-killing primer. A dark-colored splotch showed through.
“Look,” she said. “It’s coming back.”
Cracks, sewage, roaches
The mold or mildew may be the most pressing complaint at the moment, but close behind it comes bugs, management and buckling ceilings.
Dergin pointed to bugs climbing up and down her bathroom. Another woman said her cabinet was held up by her blender, and when management nailed it back on, it was crooked. A man said he had to put towels on his window sills whenever it rains because water leaks through. The complex has faulty heat and spotty air conditioning units, tenants say. It had a days-long power outage over the summer.
In response to earlier inspections, the property owners disputed federal inspectors’ findings. In subsequent inspections, HUD found that owners failed to repair problems found in the last inspections. Jerome said that in response to the latest failed inspection, Millennia had brought out repair teams and improved concrete, asphalt, roofing, gutters, doors, screens and appliances.
Sometimes, the mother of the 15-year-old thinks about gathering tenants to show up at Galveston’s City Hall. If HUD won’t do anything, she thinks, maybe they can shame the city into it. But she’s still scared of losing her home.
Without her subsidized apartment at Sandpiper Cove, she said, she and her daughter would be homeless.
“We’re up against the wall again,” she said. “We’re just trying to get help.”