67 apartments to be cleared for black mold search

April 27, 2002

Reported by Mansfield

April 25, 2002

AKRON, Ohio -- The Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) plans to

remove residents from 67 apartments at its Joy Park complex. That's while

the agency makes sure no health-threatening mold is in 16 previously

renovated buildings.

Right now, no one is sick and no mold has been found. Still everyone must

move just to be safe.

" I'm very worried, " resident Jill Harrah says.

Harrah wonders if black mold could be why her daughter Allyssa has been

coughing so much.

" They've never figured out what's wrong with her and I called my doctors and

they said if I have black mold it could be the cause of all of her

problems, " Harrah says.

AMHA held meetings with tennants to explain why they're being displaced. All

of the apartments must be tested, a project that could cost $2 million.

" [We'll have to] Remove or abate all the mold in the units, if in fact,

there is mold in all the units, we're not sure yet, " AMHA's Terry Meese

says.

" I've already started getting baby's room together and now we're moving, "

resident Lakiesha Curry says.

Curry just wants her apartment, specifically her unborn baby's room, to stay

the way it is but knows now the interior walls she called home will soon be

torn apart.

Curry says she asked about black mold before she moved in.

" If there was black mold in our apartments, and I've been here for two

years, will it have long-term effects on my unborn baby and my son? " Curry

asks.

The projected price tag is nearly 20 percent of the agency's annual capital

improvements budget. O'Leary is executive director. He says the mold

cleanup is part of the AMHA's commitment to make certain residents are

living in the safest conditions possible.

O'Leary said there is no evidence of mold causing health problems for any

tenants at Joy Park, even though air sampling indicated that there was some

mold infestation in four occupied apartments there.

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