NEW ORLEANS — Two single mothers in New Orleans East said they're living with mold. Amid rising living costs, the women say they want to move but can't afford it
Harrika Esteen has been living at Chateau D' Orleans Apartments for five years.
"The mold is in my dishwasher. The mold is in my downstairs closet, upstairs bathroom and my downstairs bathroom," Esteen said.
Esteen said her downstairs closet was covered in mold. Inside it was her kid's stroller, jumper, car seat and toys. The New Orleans East mother said she had to throw them all out, which she said cost her $1,500.
"Both of my kids are always coughing. Their nose is always running. My daughter she has asthma, she has asthma attacks. Sometimes, I have to rush her to the hospital. It keeps my children sick," she said.
Esteen says she has gone to property management at least six times about the mold, and they just paint over it.
"Nothing has been done, the most that they do is come and paint over the mold and mildew. They haven't fixed anything," Esteen said.
When the man who manages Esteen's apartment, Albert Benarroch of Capital Realty Group, Inc., was asked whether he was neglecting the problem by simply painting over the mold, he said he believes his company, based in New York, did more than that to combat the problem.
"We do mold remediation. First of all, it doesn't do any good to just paint over, we have to figure out where the moisture is coming and remediate it that way." Benaroch said, "As soon as she brought it to our attention we did mold remediation, we sheet rocked, we didn't just paint like she said."
Another neighbor, Eunice Hubbard said her apartment has mold too.
"I have been dealing with this for eight years now," Hubbard said.
She said there has been mold in her two bathrooms, and the upstairs bathroom has been leaking into the downstairs bathroom.
"It's hard for us to breath in here, it suffocates us," she said.
Hubbard said her kids have gotten sick too.
"My son has asthma, and he has been catching asthma attacks from this back-to-back." Hubbard said.
She explained the complex's remedy is very similar to Esteen's, "I have told them several times about it, ain't nothing getting done about it. They'll come repaint over it."
Benarroch said staff have been fixing the leak in Hubbard's apartment.
Esteen said her closet is now mold free, but she worries the mold will come back.
Eyewitness News has asked property management to send us the work orders for both apartments, we're still waiting for those documents.
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