After man cites health problems, UC conducts second, more thorough inspection

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Overlooking the obvious

After man cites health problems, UC conducts second, more thorough

inspection

Nardone

Reporter staff writer February 17, 2002

TOO LONG - Medina, Sr.'s bathroom in his Union City apartment has

looked like this for the past eight months, his relatives say. They charge

that mold building on the ceiling and walls was contributing to his failing

health.

The smell of mildew immediately overwhelms a visitor to Apartment 1, 218

48th St., Union City. A walk into the small bathroom off of the kitchen

reveals why.

Water gushes through a large hole in the ceiling onto the floor whenever the

upstairs tenants flush their toilet. The situation has existed for eight

months.

Medina, 67, was already sick when the ceiling fell in his bathroom

last year, according to his son, Jr. However, since mold has

apparently been building up over the last eight months, Medina has been

hospitalized three times in the last month and a half.

" No sooner he gets released from the hospital, he is back in there, " said

Medina, Jr., explaining that his father was first hospitalized in

December.

Medina Sr., who recently retired from his profession as a baker, was

suffering from asthma and recently had a pacemaker placed in his chest. He

has had water in his lungs.

Medina Sr., who has been an American citizen for four years, said that he

thinks the conditions of his apartment are responsible for his health.

According to information found on the Center for Disease Control's website,

mold can be detrimental to people who have respiratory problems or asthma.

Unfortunately, numerous calls from Cruz, Medina Sr.'s

daughter-in-law, to the city's building inspectors, Housing Authority and

the mayor did not get the apartment repaired, said Cruz and Medina two weeks

ago.

" Everywhere I turned for help, I received closed doors, " said Cruz.

Medina and Cruz were especially concerned because their father was about to

come home from the hospital again - home to an apartment desperately in need

of repairs.

When asked about the situation, Mayor Stack gave the newspaper a

letter from the Department of Public Safety, Division of Inspections dated

Jan. 14 to the building's landlord, SSL Management LLC in Brooklyn. The

letter gave the landlord until Jan. 31 to fix the violations in the

apartment.

But that deadline had come and gone by the time Cruz and Medina complained

to the newspaper on Feb. 5. The director of the city's Rent Control Office,

, said that the landlord has received more than 40 letters from

his office in the last several years.

" There have been a lot of problems with this building, " said .

According to Mayor Stack, this landlord owns other properties in the

city. Stack said that his buildings are being watched closely.

" He is definitely a problem landlord; there is no doubt about that, " said

Stack.

But Josh Sigelman, who manages the 48th Street building and whose family

owns it, said he does not own any other properties in the city. Sigelman

lives in Brooklyn.

The city issued a follow-up summons to Sigelman to appear in court on Feb.

21 at 8:30 a.m.

Failing health

Medina Sr.'s last hospital visit kept him in St. Hospital in Hoboken

from Jan. 20 through Wednesday, Feb. 6.

" I spent Christmas, New Year's and my birthday all in the hospital, " Medina,

Sr. said in Spanish last week. He now only carries 130 pounds on his 5'5 "

frame.

Cold water has been draining into his bathroom since the ceiling collapse,

Cruz said. According to Sigelman, the leak started in Apartment 8, two

stories above Medina Sr., and went through Apartment 4 and down into

Apartment 1, where Medina Sr. lives.

According to Sigelman, the leaks in apartments 8 and 4 have already been

repaired.

" He is breathing in all of the mold in the bathroom, " charged Cruz, adding

that Medina Sr. now has water in his lungs.

Some time last year, Medina, Sr.'s family had installed a hospital bed and

two oxygen tanks in his bedroom for him.

Medina Sr. had nowhere else to go other than into his old apartment. His son

lives in a three-bedroom apartment with two roommates, and Cruz lives

with her husband (Medina Sr.'s other son) and their 3-year-old daughter in

North Bergen in a Section 8 subsidized apartment. Medina Sr.'s two sons are

the only family he has.

A letter received from Medina, Sr.'s social worker, Ivory at Christ

Hospital, said that Medina Sr. has been hospitalized three times in the past

month in a half.

" We think that the mold in his apartment is a contributing factor, " wrote

Ivory in the letter.

A new inspection

Cruz said two weeks ago that the building inspectors in Union City had not

helped, and neither had the mayor. " All [the mayor] said to me was that he

couldn't help me, " said Medina.

" Absolutely not, " said Stack. " I told her that I would make sure that we

would stay on top of it. "

Stack added that he had said that he would hire a private contractor if the

landlord did not respond, and bill the work to the landlord's tax bill.

" What she wants is an apartment in a senior citizen building, " Stack said.

He said he referred her to the Housing Authority for assistance since he

does not have any control over senior citizen housing. And Stack said that

he only received a phone call from Cruz two weeks ago, not eight months ago.

But after the Reporter made phone calls, a new inspection was performed this

past week.

The original letter from the Department of Inspections, written to the

building's landlord in January after what inspectors termed a " quick

inspection, " only listed the landlord's responsibilities as " scrape and

paint bathroom, repair bathroom ceiling and correct mold problem in bathroom

walls and ceiling. " It failed to mention other problems, including the fact

that Medina Sr.'s sink is tied together with rope.

Joe Russo, the supervisor of the city's Division of Inspections, said that

that " quick inspection " had taken place in January.

Friday, Mayor Stack inspected Apartment 1 again.

" This is deplorable, " Stack said. " These are the worst apartments I have

ever seen. "

Stack then ordered a new check of that apartment by the city's building

inspectors. On Monday, they returned. Russo found that the apartment needed

a complete paint job, another window in the bedroom and a new kitchen sink.

The inspection report also asked the landlord to install new outlets and

remove illegal extension cords. " I didn't see them, " said Russo, trying to

explain why the initial report did not list other violations such as a lack

of ventilation and a broken kitchen sink. " We didn't go into the other room.

It was a quick inspection. "

Medina Sr. was relocated to the Days Inn in North Bergen this past Monday.

He will be living in the hotel for up to one week, or until the repairs on

his apartment are completed. Since Medina Sr. withheld his last two months'

rent, that money will go to the hotel bill.

On Monday, during the new inspection, Sigelman agreed to refinish Medina

Sr.'s apartment. He said he could use it as a showcase apartment for what he

thinks should be standard for all of the apartments in the building. The

city will inspect it again before Medina, Sr. returns.

The rest of the building

When Stack first visited the apartment on his own on Friday, Feb. 8, he was

concerned about the condition of the hallways and other apartments in the

building.

" One of my biggest problems in City Hall is the building department, " said

Stack, who couldn't understand why the landlord didn't get written up about

the hallways.

" We are short-handed, " Russo said. " That's the problem. "

Other tenants in the apartments said they've experienced the same trouble.

" We've always had problems since I've been here, " said Bernarda ez,

who has lived in Apartment 4 since 1984. " Over the years, inspectors have

been here and done nothing. They did minor repairs but nothing big. "

But independent of the city's inspection of Medina Sr.'s apartment, there

had already been action in the works regarding the entire building by the

city's fire safety inspectors.

Those inspectors had done a routine annual inspection in December of the

entire building and levied the landlord $28,000 in fines.

The first week in February, because Sigelman had not abated the fire safety

issues, he got a new letter. He contacted the city's building department on

Thursday, Feb. 7 to enter into a new agreement to begin repairs throughout

the building. He said he would start them by Feb. 19.

Fire Inspector Miranda, who had performed the state inspection on the

building in 2000, said that only minor violations had been abated since

then.

" Minor repairs have been done, but nothing substantial, " said Miranda. " In a

building like this, if you don't keep up with leaks and window replacements,

you will always have problems. "

The landlord is still scheduled to appear in court regarding Miranda Sr.'s

apartment on Feb. 21.

Staff writer Eugene Mulero contributed to this story.

©The Union City Reporter 2002