Mold in public housing

People who live in a public housing hi-rise have filed multiple complaints about mold, claiming the building is making them sick. The 14-story Wilkinson Plaza on West Fifth Street in downtown Dayton has had problems with mold ever since a major water pipe burst on the 6th floor in 2011. At the time the agency that owns the building, Greater Dayton Premier Management, spent nearly $1 million to repair the plumbing and deal with the mold problem.

Still, three years after the original incident, resident Brenda Osborn has claimed the mold continues to cause her multiple health problems.

"I have sinusitis continually, blisters in my mouth and I have lost 99 pounds," Osborn said.

Fellow Wilkinson Plaza resident Stephanie Wallace said she too has had health problems that she traced to mold in her apartment.

"It put me in the hospital for a month," Wallace said. The situation recently drew the attention of Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley.

Foley toured the facility at the request of a pastor who has worked on behalf of the residents there. Among the first problems Foley noticed is that residents were using their stoves to heat their apartments. They believe the apartment heaters have mold growing in them and stir up bad air.

"I am not a biologist, but I did not like what I saw," Foley said.

In an effort to obtain verification of the mold problem, the I-Team enlisted the help of an independent testing and remediation company, The Environmental Doctor. Company owner Brenden Gitzinger shipped samples taken from the building to a lab in Virginia. One of the samples obtained from a Wilkinson Plaza apartment tested positive for mold.

"This was identified to be what we call stacci botrus, which is a marker type spore or marker type mold," Gitzinger said.

He added that the concentration level was relatively low, but still enough of a concern that it should be investigated further. After months of complaints from residents, GDPM's Executive Director, Danyelle S.T. Wright, said the agency initiated its own mold testing and expects the results soon.

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Mold in public housing