NYCHA a spore loser
Jab at mold gran
New York City Housing Authority officials had the gall to ask an 83-yearold Bronx woman, “Now are you satisfied?” when they finally began repairs — more than two years late — on her mold-infested apartment, she says.
Workers showed up Monday for a weeklong rehabilitation of Albertha Fernandez’s apartment in the Forest Houses, a repair she first requested in November 2015.
She said one official needled her for her repeated complaints about the dangerous situation.
“She had the nerve to ask me, ‘Well, now are you satisfied?’ ” fumed Fernandez, who has lupus and other ailments.
“I said, ‘ No, I’ll be satisfied when it’s done. I won’t be happy until it’s all done.’ ”
Fernandez, who has lived in the complex in Morrisania since 1956, said NYCHA should have remedied the issue within 15 days of her initial complaint, since that’s what it agreed to do in settlement of a 2013 class-action suit.
Instead, the agency dragged its feet for so long that Fernandez filed a civil suit in December to get the repairs done.
“This work here was supposed to be done in January because I had gone to court,” she said. “They violated the court order, so I went back last Wednesday, then they were supposed to be completed by last week, but they didn’t show.”
NYCHA claimed it couldn’t do the work dur- ing two visits to Fernandez’s home last week because she refused to move furniture so workers could access the mold.
The troubled agency got moving only when The Post started making inquiries, said Fernandez’s son, Butch, 62.
“Look at the response,” he said, referring to workers peeling moldy paint at the apartment. “This is why I said, ‘Call the media.’ When everybody’s not aware what’s going on, you get no results.”
Workers will spend about a week peeling paint, priming walls and repainting the apartment to get rid of the mold, according to a work order shared with The Post.
Fernandez was also promised a new refrigerator and stove to replace her old ones, which were more than 15 years old.