Asthma Act Will Help Tenants Breathe Easier

[Guest guest]

I sent this proposed legislation to you last year but attached it to this

email FYI. Seems to be moving along. New York City Councillor Rosie

Mendez was one of the people who sent a letter of support to Congressman Waxman

for the Oversight and Government Reform hearing we are requesting.

Mulvey son

_http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/06/local/asthma-act-will-help-tenants-brea

the-easier-jun-09_

(http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/06/local/asthma-act-will-help-tenants-breathe-\

easier-jun-09)

Asthma Act Will Help Tenants Breathe Easier

by Eleanor J. Bader

Margarita Pabon’s daughter was 18 months old when she began to show signs

of chronic illness. “It started with a bad cough,†began Pabon, who lives

in Sunset Park. “At first we thought it was a cold or the flu, but she kept

being sick until one night she could barely breathe.†Early one morning,

Pabon took her daughter to a doctor, who diagnosed the child with asthma.

As the doctor outlined treatment options, he asked Pabon if there were

cockroaches, rats, or mold in her apartment, all of which are known asthma

triggers. Her answer was a resounding “Yes.â€

Photo of Nicolas Castillo by Oberlin.

Unnerved to learn that poor housing conditions were literally making her

daughter sick, Pabon immediately asked her sister-in-law, the apartment’s

leaseholder, to call the landlord and demand repairs. He promised quick

action, Pabon said, but did nothing. Pabon’s sister-in-law then phoned 311

and

City inspectors were dispatched.

“There was mold everywhere,†Pabon explained. “The ceiling in the bathroom

was coming down, the sink and toilet leaked, and the rug the landlord put

on the floor was filthy.†But the inspectors didn’t address the mold and

rodent problems. Instead, they removed lead they discovered in one of the

rooms, and left.

Pabon’s experience is not unique. Asthma is a potentially life-threatening

condition, and a growing public health crisis, but one that experts say

City policy has failed to adequately address. Brett Tolley, an Immigrant

Advocate at La Union, a community organization based in Sunset Park, said a

major obstacle is the City’s definition of indoor allergens as property

rather

than health violations. “If there is lead in an apartment, a City inspector

will find it,†he explained, and if landlords fail to act immediately, the

city sends an emergency repair unit to get the job done. But mold,

cockroaches, and rats are deemed less serious “B violations,†akin to

landlords

failing to paint or clean a hallway, or replace an entry light. As a result,

these allergens are often allowed to fester for years with no penalty to

landlords.

As part of a larger organizing effort around the issue, La Union has joined

the Citywide Coalition for Asthma-Free Homes, an alliance of seven

community organizations working to improve housing conditions in the five

boroughs. One of the coalition’s top priorities is ensuring the passage of

the

Asthma-Free Housing Act, which was originally introduced in the spring of 2008

by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and City Councilmember Rosie Mendez. The

Act currently has 24 City Council sponsors and, as drafted, would amend the

Housing Maintenance Code to reduce indoor allergens—rats, mold, and

roaches—

in units rented by people with asthma, emphysema, or lung cancer. It would

also require landlords to inspect apartments at least once a year, and

prove that asthma triggers have been removed. Like Local Law 1 passed in 2003,

which mandated the removal of brain-damaging lead from housing units, the

Asthma-Free Housing Act re-classifies rats, mold, and roaches as

immediately hazardous “C violations,†and authorizes the Department of

Housing

Preservation and Development to correct infractions if landlords don’t. The

Act

also requires the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to encourage

healthcare workers to report suspected indoor allergens to HPD on their

patients

’ behalf.

One shortcoming of the Asthma-Free Housing Act is that it only applies to

housing units occupied by tenants who are already sick, even though it is

well established that respiratory conditions such as asthma often originate

with exposure to indoor allergens. Still, advocates support the legislation

as a necessary first step in addressing the crisis.

Promises From the City, But Little Progress

Public Advocate Gotbaum said she became interested in indoor allergens

after her office began tracking mold complaints and found a whopping 1800

percent increase in calls to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

between

1999 and 2004. “I was shocked to learn that the Housing Maintenance Code

contains no enforceable protocol for mold assessment and clean up,†Gotbaum

wrote in an email. “This is a clear-cut public health issue; no one with

asthma should have to live in an apartment with pests or mold.â€

This conviction was buttressed by further research by Gotbaum’s office

revealing that one million New Yorkers, 300,000 of them children, live with

asthma. The condition is the primary reason for school absence in the U.S.,

and the most common cause of hospital visits for those under 14. Not

surprisingly, poor and low-income families are at increased risk: A 2003 report

by

the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene demonstrated that those

earning over $75,000 a year live in units with fewer allergy triggers than

those earning $25,000 a year.

Make the Road New York, a community group working to improve health

conditions in low-income areas of Brooklyn and Queens, got involved in the

Coalition for Asthma-Free Homes in 2005. That same year, according to housing

organizer Goldman, the group conducted a study that found that the asthma

hospitalization rate in Bushwick was four times that of other parts of the

city. The culprit? Bad housing conditions.

“The Act is a way to hold landlords accountable,†Goldman explained.

“It’

s about a greener home environment and represents a huge potential savings

to the City in terms of fewer Emergency Room visits and missed days of

school. The lead bill has lowered lead levels in children; the same could be

true of asthma if we remove the triggers that make it worse.â€

It seems like a no-brainer. Yet the Act has languished in the City Council

since its introduction last year.

Kaszuba, Gotbaum’s Deputy General for Intergovernmental and Legal

Affairs, blames the lack of progress on timing. “It was introduced late in the

2008 legislative year,†he said. “This session, the focal points of the

Council’s work have been the budget and term limits. The Asthma-Free Housing

Act was simply not the main thing on the Council or Administration’s

agenda.â€

But the seven-member Coalition for Asthma-Free Homes, which includes the

American Lung Association, the Urban Justice Center, La Union, Make the Road

New York, the Fifth Avenue Committee, the New York Immigrant Coalition, and

the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, are determined to get the

Act passed.

Landlords in Denial

This past April, tenants from 346 54th street in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park

staged a boisterous protest outside the office of landlord Dan Brady.

Mirafuentes lives in one of two occupied apartments in the eight-unit

building, and ticks off conditions that would make Riis weep: black mold,

leaks, erratic heat and hot water, rats, roaches, holes in the ceilings,

floors, and walls, and garbage piled up by construction crews who began but

never finished renovating vacant apartments. HPD lists 301 violations–the

roster runs 16 pages—for the building, from faulty boiler valves to broken

windows and rampant vermin.

This state of affairs, said Mirafuentes, has exacerbated her son ’

asthma, which he developed as a toddler. Despite near-daily use of a

nebulizer and inhaler, misses a lot of school and has difficulty

concentrating when he is ill. “If his throat is sore or he is coughing, it is

difficult for him to pay attention,†she said.

At her wit’s end, Mirafuentes described call after call to both her

landlord and 311. She shrugs, “Nothing has helped.â€

For his part, Dan Brady pooh-poohs the complaints. “I’ve never seen

evidence of rats,†he said. “I could send an endless parade of

exterminators and

the tenants would love it, but cockroaches are not endemic to buildings.

They come from grocery bags and poor housekeeping. Spraying with toxic

chemicals would not be doing the tenants any favors.â€

But advocates and city officials insist that less toxic alternative

strategies for managing pests are available. Gotbaum and other supporters of the

Asthma Act point landlords like Brady to Integrated Pest Management, a

system of complementary techniques that does include the use of some chemicals,

but is safer than traditional methods of extermination, and is endorsed by

the City’s Health Department.

But Brady said that even if he were to decide to fix conditions, it would

require him to evict tenants, something he said he does not want to do.

This assertion leaves organizer Brett Tolley virtually speechless. In his

view, there is plenty that can be done without displacing tenants. But he’s

not discouraged. His organization, together with residents, plans to

continue pressuring Brady to repair his property.

Toward that end, Mirafuentes recently presented a dead rat, firmly affixed

to a glue trap, to landlord Brady. “This should end his denial of the

problem,†she laughed, adding that she is cautiously optimistic that the

double-punch of the rat and office protest will get results.

Margarita Pabon, however, finally gave up, and moved her family to a

freshly renovated, pest-and-mold-free apartment. She reports that her

daughter’s

asthma has greatly improved.

* _ Print_ ()

About the Author

Eleanor J. Bader writes about social issues from Bay Ridge. She is thankful

that her building is clean and well maintained.

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