After telling public-housing tenants last month that there was no mold in their apartment complex, Metropolitan Housing Alliance Executive Director Rodney Forte said Thursday that the agency did find mold and had it remedied.
Jesse Powell Tower tenants April E̶a̶n̶e̶s̶* Eans and Bonita Iverson have been complaining for almost a year of health problems that they said were worsened by mold at the housing complex at 1010 Wolfe St. in Little Rock.
The mother and daughter, who live in separate units at the complex, went to a state representative, the media and housing agency staff members before approaching the Little Rock housing board of commissioners about the matter in June.
The housing board governs certain aspects of the Metropolitan Housing Alliance, which operates with federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds.
After no one contacted them about their June complaints, E̶a̶n̶e̶s̶ Eans and Iverson said, they went to the next housing board meeting in August. There, an argument ensued with Forte when they brought up the mold complaints.
Forte said there wasn't mold in the building. Iverson asked if that were true, then why were she, her daughter and several other tenants moved from their apartments in November.
In response, Forte said: "We moved you because we wanted to make sure there was no problem. We did studies to find out what is going on in those areas. There is no mold in those areas."
At Thursday's commission meeting, Forte said there was mold and had an environmental engineering and consulting company give a presentation about the remediation completed at Powell Towers earlier this year.
John Hatchett, president of Emtec, said the housing agency had a report from a different mold remediation company that indicated mold Nov. 3 -- before several tenants were moved out of their units. Emtec confirmed that report Nov. 17 and started work in January to remove mold from seven of the 16 units they tested. The work was completed Jan. 9.
E̶a̶n̶e̶s̶ Eans said after Thursday's meeting that she feels like she has been getting the "runaround."
"The last few months they were claiming there is no mold, and now today there is mold? I just feel like they just intentionally, deliberately left people [out of the loop]," E̶a̶n̶e̶s̶ Eans said.
Commissioner Leta Anthony asked Metropolitan Housing Alliance Deputy Director Dana Arnette whether the residents had been informed throughout the process. Arnette said there were meetings held with residents about roof work and elevator repair, but didn't mention informing them of the mold problem.
E̶a̶n̶e̶s̶ Eans and Iverson said they were never told there was a mold problem, despite bringing up the possibility several times and asking why they were moved from their apartments.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asked Forte in June why the residents were moved. One of his employees responded by email in August, saying the residents were moved because of a roof leak.
On Thursday, Forte said the roof wasn't leaking; rather, drainage pipes that run through the walls that connect from the roof to the ground floor were leaking. Work to correct the problem was completed earlier this year, Forte said.
When asked after Thursday's meeting why he told residents last month that there was no mold in Powell Towers, Forte said "because the report we received in January showed there was no mold."
Emtec didn't check all 165 apartments or the communal areas for mold. Hatchett said he also didn't remove the mold from the apartments that were left vacant after the leak.
"We said there was no reason to do it yet because at that time the leak hadn't been fixed. We could go tear it out, but it's going to be right back," he told the commission. "We said once y'all get the roof drain leak fixed, we recommend looking at those again."
When it was pointed out to Forte after the meeting that Hatchett said he had not removed the mold from those apartments, Forte said that's not what Hatchett said and that the work had been completed in those apartments.
Hatchett clarified in an email after the meeting that he did remove mold from some of the vacated apartments, but didn't know how many.
The Democrat-Gazette has made multiple requests to the housing agency for a copy of its mold reports, beginning Aug. 20. By the end of the business day Thursday, Forte hadn't provided the reports.
Metro on 09/18/2015
*CORRECTION: April Eans is a former tenant of Jesse Powell Towers in Little Rock who is suing the city’s Metropolitan Housing Alliance on allegations that mold in the building caused her health problems. Eans’ name was misspelled in this article.