A purportedly long-standing concern regarding the possibility of harmful mold at the Charles Scattergood apartment complex has resurfaced.
Tenant Michelle Campbell is alleging that her residential unit is contaminated with mold and the mold has made her ill.
Campbell said she has voiced numerous complaints and reached out to several persons and agencies regarding the issue, beginning in January of 2017, and maintains that the problem still exists.
Campbell said she began telling her mother that she felt something in her apartment was making her sick because she only felt ill there.
“I know it was my apartment. I haven’t been able to enjoy my place because I got sick,” she said. Campbell said she is still residing in the unit but not actually sleeping there because of the mold.
Campbell said she first met with David Jackson, director of Delta Housing Development Corporation, at the end of 2017, but according to her it took him months to respond.
“He dodged me a year to give me this report that was supposed to take seven to 10 business days,” she said.
According to her, when she informed Jackson that her apartment was making her sick one of the first things he did was perform a test for mold. “All of my vent covers were black. He had (a maintenance worker) to come in and change all of those vent covers while he performed the test,” she said.
The results of the inspection report that she referenced, which states that it was prepared for Jackson, showed samples were collected in August of 2017 and it indicated that the most common spore present in the apartment was Cladosporium.
Another report that Campbell said she requested on her own that was completed by a different company that collected samples in February of 2018 also indicated a heavy presence of the Cladosporium species.
According to online resources, Cladosporium is described as a common mold that may affect a person’s health and possibly cause allergies and asthma in some. However, most species of Cladosporium aren't considered dangerous to humans.
“It really has taken a very emotional toll on me. I thank God that he showed me,” she said. In addition to the emotional strain that Campbell said she suffers, she has ongoing medical issues that she maintains resulted from her exposure to the mold. “I go to the doctor and get antibiotic shots and steroid shots and the steroid shot runs my sugar up,” she said.
In response to the allegations, Jackson said, “I’m just surprised they (Campbell) are still pursuing it, but apparently they are.” He said the SDRHA has gone out to the apartment several times because Campbell has the section-8 housing voucher and they are required to investigate any tenant’s complaints. “And the housing authority has not said that they have found anything that resembles mold and what have you,” said Jackson.
He affirmed that Delta Housing has also gone into the complex on occasions after heavy rains where damage was reported and treated the units in order to prevent mildew and mold. “I don’t know anything to do beyond what we have done and we do have a list of what we have done,” he said.
Jackson continued, “I’m not trying to keep her from recovering whatever she feels like she needs. That’s one of the reasons we have insurance.”
Campbell also complains of coughing and other breathing-related concerns. “It’s attacking my respiratory system and it have me with irritation in my nose and throat,” she said.
Campbell said that in addition to Jackson, she has also reached out to many city and local officials including the city inspector and assistant city inspector and a county supervisor.
She alleged that the city inspector told her there was nothing he could do.
“When I first went to Mr. (Elvis) Pernell, he told me it was a privately-owned facility and it was really nothing they could do,” Campbell said.
Calls to the inspector from The E-T were not returned.
At one point, according to Campbell, the police were called in on her because allegedly Jackson and the landlord of the property complained that she was acting irrational and wouldn’t allow the worker into her apartment to do their job.
Campbell said she also reached out to Congressman Bennie Thompson in 2018 and he in turn reached out to persons at the Mississippi Department of Housing and Urban Development who contacted the South Delta Regional Housing Authority representatives.
An October 2018 letter from HUD, addressed to Thompson, stated that SDRHA was aware of a previous problem with mold in Campbell’s apartment, but it had been resolved. The letter also stated that Campbell had been offered an option to transfer her housing voucher to another housing unit, but she had not accepted that option.
In response to that, Campbell maintained that no other units were available. The correspondence further invited Campbell or any other resident of the complex to submit a formal complaint to SDRHA so proper corrective steps could be taken.
Campbell is resolute that the landlord and building’s owners have only made attempts to cover up the issue by painting over the problem. She said maintenance personnel were entering her apartment regularly without giving her prior knowledge. “As if I had no rights over there,” she said.
So as a result, she changed the lock on the door only to be handed a $30 fee from Delta Housing for having to replace her lock with their own, so they could again have access.
Campbell maintains that the maintenance person that replaced the vents said there was an issue with the way the ductwork was done and could possibly result in extensive work to the roof and or walls. “Mr. Jackson’s reply to Mr. Hull was, he didn’t see it going to that extreme because they had just renovated those apartments,” Campbell said.
She maintains that since she has been complaining they have threatened to evict her. “They tried evicting me so many times, but didn’t have really probable cause,” she said. Campbell said she received her most recent eviction notice in November, but Delta Housing has not acted upon it as of Tuesday of this week.
She is receiving housing assistance through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 (housing choice voucher) program and said they told her that she couldn’t be evicted as long as her rent is paid and she is in compliance with the policies and she verified that her rent is paid.
Jackson said since there was no harmful mold found in the structure he is unsure of what Campbell’s desires are. “We can’t just tear the whole complex down, the whole building down. Other people live in the same building,” Jackson said.
He explained, “I treat her like we treat all tenants, if they have a complaint we try to address it. We address it the best we can.”
He said Campbell could be moved to another unit within her present complex, but not to another facility. Jackson said to the best of his knowledge, Campbell has not expressed a desire for such a move. “To move her to another complex would be a violation of federal law because we would be putting her ahead of somebody else on the waiting list,” he said.
He added that if Campbell feels as if Delta Housing has not effectively addressed her concerns, then she has options. “She has her own voucher, she’s free to move anywhere she wants to. I wouldn’t stay somewhere that was killing me.” He added that her rent would be the same no matter where she used the voucher.
However, Campbell said she was unable to find another place to move in to. She said on Tuesday that her concern extends beyond her own safety; she is also concerned about others who may move into the unit after she is gone.
Jackson concluded that there may be something other than mold that’s causing Campbell’s issues. “But we don’t know what it is,” he said
