Inwood apartment complex problem fixed

What was thought by a tenant and a former tenant to be a mold problem at the Inwood Terrace apartment complex on Bayview Avenue was found to be water damage.
Paul Morant, 73, former resident of the Inwood Terrace apartment complex on Bayview Avenue, said he thought mold was growing underneath the apartment, which didn’t help his wife Virginia’s lupus and heart conditions. Virginia Morant, 74, who died on June 25, had continued to live in their apartment during an amicable separation. He now lives at Mary’s Manor, an assisted living facility, in Inwood. They were married for 42 of the 52 years they knew each other.
“After Sandy, the storm pushed water in, flooding us up from the basement into the first floor,” he said. “Mold thrives in dampness. When the apartment complex management drained the water out, they should have treated the walls and floors to prevent mold from growing.”
Morant said he helped in building the apartments back in 1971 and remembered how they were constructed. “Ventilation is poor,” he said. “The air ducts on the outside bottom of the buildings are small, too small to drain water properly.”
DeWitt Marshall, 61, Morant’s former neighbor in the apartment complex, has lived in his apartment since 2011, and uses an oxygen breathing apparatus. “Without my air conditioning on in my apartment, it would be difficult to breathe,” he said. “Since Sandy, I’ve noticed it’s been harder to breathe in [the apartment].”

Uri Gartsman owns and manages Inwood Terrace through Brooklyn-based House and Garden Management. According to House and Garden Management spokeswoman Raizy Fray, Gartsman worked with building superintendent Jimmy Poprilo to assess whether or not mold was growing in the apartments. “The building super investigated the situation in the (Marshall and Morant) apartments,” Fray said. “One of our maintenance workers, under direction from Gartsman and Poprilo, checked the apartments for any mold.”
House and Garden Management superintendent Jimmy Poprilo confirmed that after an inspection of Morant and Marshall’s apartments, there was no mold to be found. “There was only one apartment thought to have mold, and it was a separate incident entirely, ” he said. “Section 8 (federal housing public assistance) also just inspected the Marshall property recently, and didn’t find any.”
In Marshall’s apartment, the upstairs tenant was running water too long, which caused a stain, which was not mold, on Marshall’s ceiling. “Anytime I see mold spots, first I assess whether or not it is mold. If it happens to be, I spray a mold remover on it, clean the area, let it dry and paint over it. If it were a more severe case, I would remove and replace the insulation and drywall and then follow through with the same steps.”
Mary Ellen Laurain, the county’s health department spokesperson, said that residents with mold issues need to consult with property owners or their building’s management. The county health department was not responsible for conducting mold studies on properties. Laurain wasn’t able to disclose due to privacy regulations if Morant or Marshall had ever called the health department for assistance.
“At the county level, there are no regulations pertaining to mold,” she said. “Mold issues must be addressed through a landlord or a building department. We give advice on how to clean it and remove it, but we don’t provide mold removal or cleaning as a service to residents.”
Angel Torres, a social services coordinator for the elderly at Mary’s Manor in Inwood, was a resident of Inwood Terrace who moved out in 2013. Torres said she’d always hoped Morant and Marshall would receive help. “When housing is government subsidized, people have no choice but to remain where they are, especially senior citizens, in places that are less than ideal,” she said. “Paul (Morant) is not a troublemaker. He’s just very concerned.” Many of the Inwood Terrace apartments are rented to tenants receiving federal housing public assistance, including Morant and Marshall.