Hospital, relatives don't want to release ailing UC man to his mold damaged apartment

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Can anybody help him?

Hospital, relatives don't want to release ailing UC man to his damaged

apartment

by Nardone

Reporter staff writer February 10, 2002

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

48th Street in Union City. A walk into the small bathroom off of the kitchen

reveals why.

A large hole in the ceiling allows water to gush down the walls onto the

floor whenever the tenants living upstairs flush their toilet, and it has

not been repaired in eight months.

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

according to his son, Jr. However, since the mold has been building up

over the last eight months, Medina has been hospitalized 10 times, relatives

said.

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

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

in December.

Unfortunately, numerous calls from Cruz, Medina's daughter-in-law, to

the city's building inspectors, Housing Authority and mayor did not get the

apartment repaired, said Cruz and Medina.

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

When asked about the situation, the city 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, giving the

landlord until Jan. 31 to fix the violations in the apartment.

But that deadline has come and gone. 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 .

SSL Management LLC did not have a listed number under its business name or

address. A number given by the Rent Control Office was no longer in service.

According to Union City 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.

The city has issued a summons to the landlord to appear in court on Feb. 21

at 8:30 a.m.

Failing health

Medina is currently in St. Hospital in Hoboken, where relatives say he

has been on and off for the past month.

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

Cruz said.

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

Medina now has water in his lungs.

Medina now has a hospital bed and two oxygen tanks waiting for him in his

bedroom at the apartment.

According to Cruz, Medina was hospitalized four times in December alone.

However, the hospital will not release him if he is going to live in the

apartment.

A letter received from his social worker, Ivory at Christ Hospital,

said that Medina 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.

However, Medina has nowhere else to go. Medina Jr. said that he now needs to

have a nurse with him at all times and therefore cannot move in with his

family.

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

lives with her husband and 3-year-old daughter in North Bergen in a Section

8 subsidized apartment.

" I just don't want this man to pass away because of negligence, " said Cruz.

Closing doors

According to Cruz, the building inspectors in Union City have not helped,

and neither has the mayor.

" All [the mayor] said to me was that he couldn't help me, " said Medina,

explaining that she had called him numerous times before he called her back.

" Absolutely not, " said Stack about accusations that he refused to help her.

" I told her that I would make sure that we would stay on top of it. "

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

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

Stack said that by the time the landlord actually goes to court, the repairs

might take up to nine months. However, Stack said that he is working to

reduce that length of time.

Of Cruz's complaint that Stack didn't respond, Stack said, " What she wants

is an apartment in a senior citizen building. " He said he referred her to

the Housing Authority for assistance since he does not have any control over

senior citizen housing. " That cannot be done. "

Stack said that he only received a phone call from Cruz last week, not eight

months ago. However, Cruz said that she has been calling over a period of

months.

" I called his office a number of times but was unable to speak to the mayor,

only spoke with his secretary, " said Cruz.

The letter written to the building's landlord in January lists the

landlord's responsibilities as " scrape and paint bathroom, repair bathroom

ceiling and correct mold problem in bathroom walls and ceiling, " but fails

to mention that Medina's sink is tied together with rope.

©The Union City Reporter 2002