Thank You National Apartment Association. I will do my best to get this very important information out ASAP to numerous owners, investors, huge property management companies (e.g., Riverstone Residential), attorneys, and judges, AND, of course, to the MANY people who are currently living in MOLD-INFESTED APARTMENT COMPLEXES right now! katy
Mountain Village loses subsidized housing, for now
By Kathrine Warren and Matthew Beaudin
Planet Staff
June 5, 2010
Editor’s note: this is part of a series looking at the mold issues at the Telluride Apartments
Mold has rendered a Mountain Village affordable housing complex largely uninhabitable, forced at least 25 people from their homes and has caused allergy-like sicknesses among residents, according to reports.
Last week, the town of Mountain Village ordered 24 of Telluride Apartments’ 30 units vacated because of high mold spore counts causing allergy-like symptoms. The six units that are still livable must be vacated by the end of the summer.
“Everyone who lives there has had some kind of adverse reaction to the mold,” said Emo Overall, program director with One Telluride, a group working with immigrant residents who have been displaced. Typical reactions to mold include coughing, nasal stuffiness, eye irritation, rashes, wheezing and skin irritation. People with weaker immune systems are susceptible to more intense symptoms.
Overall and One Telluride are working with 25 immigrants, both documented and undocumented, to find more housing. “We’re talking about 25 of the poorest people in the county, and that why this is heinous,” she said. “They’re pretty upset and they’re pretty scared.”
Telluride Apartments is located on Adams Ranch Road in Mountain Village and was built more than 20 years ago. Its proximity to a stream and architectural issues involving snowmelt have contributed to the mold growth. A leaky roof only exacerbated the problem last year, building officials said.
John Bosley, who is based of out Sheridan, Wyo., owns the property. His company, Bosley Property Management, manages the complex through a regional property manager based in Montrose. Calls to the complex’s listed number were unanswered on Friday. Members of the media were barred from a tour of the property with Mountain Village building officials on the same day.
Chad Root, a building official with Mountain Village, has been working with the property managers and Bosley to mitigate the mold problem since 2008, but it came to inspectors’ attention again after on-site managers called to report being fired for not bleaching the mold to hide it from building inspectors, he said.
“They wouldn’t do it because it was unethical,” Root said, adding that workers were also told to spray a paint primer over the mold to cover it up.
Tenants who once called the mold-infested complex home have been spending the last few weeks looking for new places to live, but some are finding it difficult.
Some have moved to the Village Courts Apartments — another subsidized housing complex in Mountain Village — but some who lived in the complex are undocumented and need a social security number to sign a lease at VCA.
Undocumented immigrants can either co-sign with someone who is documented to live at VCA or must turn to the private market to find housing in Telluride. Some families were forced to move as far away as Montrose, Overall said, where comparable housing, also managed by Bosley, is available.
Riverstone Residential Litigation
TRUTH OUT Sharon Kramer Letter To Andrew Saxon MOLD ISSUE
Action Group Asks U of CA To Take Name Off US Chamber Medico-Legal Publication
New Action Committee – ACHEMMIC- Urges Transparency in EPA Policy Over Mold & Microbial Contaminants
Truth About Mold – the most up to date, accurate, and reliable information on Toxic Mold
Sociological Issues Relating to Mold: The Mold Wars
“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.” Sharon Noonan Kramer
Katy's Exposure 