The landmark federal court settlement between City Hall and mold-plagued residents of the New York City Housing Authority is a stinging indictment of the horrors inflicted on tenants under the leadership of Chairman John Rhea.
Confronted with overwhelming evidence that NYCHA was endangering lives by failing to remedy epidemic mold, Mayor Bloomberg finally and appropriately cut loose the official who ran the authority into the ground on Bloomberg’s unfortunately inattentive watch.
The mayor did so by committing NYCHA to take speedy and thorough actions to abate epidemic mold in apartments occupied by asthmatics — and by voluntarily accepting federal court oversight of the authority’s actions. To his great credit, Deputy Mayor Bob Steel apparently rammed the deal down Rhea’s throat.
The settlement is the product of remarkable grass-roots work by Metro IAF, an umbrella group representing community organizations including Upper Manhattan Together and South Bronx Churches Sponsoring Committee, with numerous members who live in public housing.
They methodically detailed that NYCHA has systematically violated its own policies by dealing only with visible mold while doing nothing to repair the leaks that cause it. They also drew powerful connections between mold and worsened asthma in the case histories of tenants Maribel Baez of the Melrose Houses in the Bronx, Felipa Cruz of the Webster Development in the Bronx and R.D., on behalf of her 6-year-old daughter A.S., who lives in the Van Dyke I development in Brooklyn.
The settlement requires NYCHA to complete simple repairs within seven days, more complex ones within 15 days and, in all cases, for the agency to fix the underlying leak, not merely the surface mold. It must then follow up after 60 days to ensure that the mold and moisture “have been eliminated completely.” It also sets up a structure for new work rules to ensure tenants aren’t exposed to more hazards during cleanup, and it allows tenants to bring complaints directly to the court, and for the court to set steep fines if NYCHA falls flat.
Bloomberg is not one who surrendered the city to court oversight easily. Nor are we. But NYCHA’S failures were so glaring that the legal case was rock solid. There was no choice.
Now the onus will fall on Bill de Blasio, who has vowed to fix NYCHA. With the court watching, he will have to act quickly to keep that vow.
He must succeed.
