(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Mold, mice, caved-in ceilings: A look at lack of protections for New Orleans renters [1] ['Lue Palmer', 'More Lue Palmer', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-04-09 When my bathroom ceiling caved in on a Sunday morning in February, I was shocked but not surprised. About four months earlier, a leak had formed in the ceiling and kept getting worse until the drywall gave way, leaving behind piles of rubble in the sink, toilet and tub. Over that time, finger-length mushrooms began sprouting from the wall. My apartment is in a large house that was converted into several units on Nashville Avenue in Uptown, a neighborhood known for its economic privilege and grand old homes, where the median household income is nearly twice that of the city as a whole. I moved there in June 2023, while relocating from New Jersey for work in the Crescent City. I had little knowledge of the housing scene in New Orleans and had high hopes for my new apartment. But only a few months after signing my lease, I found rodent feces in the cutlery drawer. After discovering that mice were living inside the oven, I requested that the landlord replace it. It was more than a month before it was removed. Shortly afterward, black and green mold began to sprout around the sink, and across the wall that was bowing outward. Over the next several months, I brushed my teeth in the kitchen, wore a mask if I had to use the bathroom for long periods, and limited how many visitors I had. I continued to pay my rent on time. I made two maintenance requests to my landlord, Upper Management Realty, to get the leak fixed and have mold experts check for health risks. The company marked both of the requests resolved after painting over water stains on the wall. When the ceiling collapsed, and my landlord refused to provide alternate accommodations, I began to wonder what options existed for New Orleanians living in homes with chronic health and safety hazards. New Orleans’ housing challenges are compounded by old homes, flooding, humidity and extreme weather — the perfect conditions for mold and crumbling walls. But while there have been some recent developments for protecting tenants from evictions, like the city’s anti-retaliation provisions contained in the Health Homes ordinance and the right-to-counsel program, there is a gap in providing support for families facing unsafe conditions and for holding landlords accountable for maintaining safe habitability standards, housing advocates say. A finger-length mushroom surrounded by black mold sprouted next to the bathroom sink in my Nashville Avenue apartment on December 2nd, 2023. Credit: Lue Palmer/Verite News “Louisiana is arguably the state with the worst habitability standards of any state,” said Frank Southhall of Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, on the lack of protections for renters in unsafe living conditions. While states like Delaware and Vermont protect tenants’ rights to withhold rent or end rental agreements in the case of lack of habitability, there are fewer tools to enforce rental standards in Louisiana. “That’s the gap that we need to fill. Because it just doesn’t exist.” He said renters, especially those who are economically vulnerable, lack legal support for addressing habitability issues. Many, especially immigrant families, said Southall, fear that landlords will retaliate if they take action. Recent protections such as the Healthy Homes Ordinance, which was passed in 2022, have set out to prevent tenants from living with unsafe conditions, like requiring rental properties to have proactive inspections and remove properties from listings if they fail to meet safety standards. But the process has been slow to get off the ground. Monique Blossom, director of policy at the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, said that these protections provide limited help for low-income families that struggle to pay rent. She said the anti-retaliation protections in the health homes program do not apply to those who have been late on their rent or who have withheld rent in the hopes of pushing their landlords to meet the terms of their leases. “That’s one thing about the state of Louisiana is that we don’t have the ability to withhold rent in lieu of repairs getting done. We’re just not protected from that. So even when the landlord’s not fixing up your housing, you still have to continue to pay them rent or they can kick you out,” Blossom said. This is a common misconception, she said, that leads to tenants becoming ineligible for eviction protection. One week after my bathroom ceiling fell in, the moldy interior of the wall was still exposed and drying in front of a dehumidifier. My landlord had refused my second request for alternative accommodations during the repair process. The maintenance crew was scheduled to begin the drywalling when I emailed my city council representative in the hope of benefitting from the Healthy Homes ordinance. The reply was almost immediate, and the following day, two inspectors from the city’s Office of Code Enforcement came to look at the apartment. They walked carefully through my one-bedroom, asked questions about my experience and took note of the lack of ventilation in the bathroom and painted-shut windows, which they said violated the city’s health and safety standards. Even though renters can get their home inspected by the city, one of the inspectors said people are hesitant to contact the city, fearing retaliation from landlords and possible eviction after reports are filed. “If they try to put you out, call us,” he told me. Southeast Louisiana Legal Services provides free legal aid for people facing eviction through the right to counsel program. But they do not have funding to represent tenants with habitability problems, said Amelie Daigle, a tenants’ rights attorney with the organization. Renters living with unsafe conditions would have to obtain their own lawyers or represent themselves in small claims court, an option that may be inaccessible to working families, Blossom said. “Tenants’ ability to retain counsel, pay the court fees, get the day off, collect all the necessary documents is a burden on someone that’s working,” Blossom said, “especially if you’re cost-burdened by your housing or having to work multiple jobs, that can be a really big obstacle.” One week after my ceiling caved in at Nashville and Magnolia, dirt and dust accumulated in the sink around the wet and exposed wall interior on March 3rd, 2024. Credit: Lue Palmer/Verite News Working and low-income families are the most frequent clients in habitability complaints, Southall said, noting that Algiers and New Orleans East are hotspots for buildings with unsafe living conditions — especially for properties that have been in disrepair since Katrina. Gentrification in the city’s core has pushed even more people into these areas, Southall said. “Some of these landlords just did a slap of paint and they patch the holes, but they did nothing to remedy them,” Southall said. Many property owners are located out of state, he said, such as Millennia Housing Management, based in Cleveland, and Ministry Outreach Foundation, formerly Global Ministries Foundation, a religious non-profit that is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit regarding “deplorable living conditions” at its Parc Fontaine property in Algiers. One of the greatest risks of the state’s weak tenant protections is the health effects of chronic exposure to mold, especially for those most vulnerable, such as elderly people, children and people with respiratory illnesses, said Faye Grimsley, head of the Department of Public Health Science at Xavier University. Having struggled with minor asthma in the past, this was something that I worried about over the last several months in my apartment. Symptoms of mold exposure can range from triggering asthma attacks to neurological effects like memory loss and forgetfulness, depending on the type of mold, she told me, and recommended that I contact the Louisiana branch of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, which provides in-home testing for concerned residents. However, there are paths forward, Southall said, such as making it easier for tenants to get reductions in rent for health and safety violations. The Healthy Homes ordinance, a version of which was first floated by then-City Councilmember LaToya Cantrell in 2015, could also increase code enforcement efficiency. But the next steps for habitability protections may be slow, said Southall. “It’s not something that’s going to happen in the next year, just like Healthy Homes took seven years to get passed.” After more than a week living at my apartment with open walls, and showering at friends’ houses, the maintenance crew began the repairs. I had been sleeping on the couch in my living room for the last several days because my bedroom was directly beside the bathroom—and I was afraid to breathe in mold while sleeping. When they started tearing apart the wall, they found a leaking pipe in the apartment above me. They filled the front room with sheets of drywall, and covered the interior wood that had been soaking for several months under the faulty pipe. Finally, after a fresh layer of paint, they tried to put the original sink unit back in, but when the mildewy wood cracked and fell apart, they conceded and put in a new one. Since the repairs have been completed, I’ve only seen one mushroom, determined to sprout up from the baseboards. Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the limitations on services offered through the city’s right-to-counsel program. The error has been corrected. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/04/09/new-orleans-renters-rent-tenants-rights-landlord/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/