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Damaged Pipe Leaves BayView Apt. Flooded, Moldy
Anna Varela, who lives in the BayView Houses on Seaview Avenue, had to wait three weeks before the flood in her bedroom was fixed. Maintenance workers finally came to Varela's second floor apartment last Thursday. The source of the flood was unknown until workers broke through a section of the wall, which is adjacent to the bathroom, and found a leaking pipe. "I put papers down to absorb the water. The tiles were coming up and I was afraid to sleep at night, wondering if it was going to get worse," said Varela, who lived in her apartment since 1994. "I pay my rent -- I shouldn't have to wait so long for housing to fix this problem." Varela said that after the manager of the housing complex assessed the situation, "He said he was going to look at my neighbors' apartments, too, because I thought it was coming from next door, But he never came back." BayView Houses assistant superintendent Daniel Commisso said the problem was not resolved sooner due to insufficient manpower. "We used to have six guys, now we have only four to tend to 23 buildings," he said. "These buildings are over 50 years old and the pipes are rusted and falling apart. What we'll do in this apartment is have a plumber cut some of the pipe out where the leak is and put another section on then we have to get someone to plaster the wall. Now we're going to have to look in other apartments, too." Commisso said that the leak in Varela's apartment could have been hazardous. "There's water in the walls and we could see from the paint coming up that it's getting worse. When you have these conditions, you get mold and mildew. We're definitely going to make sure she doesn't have this problem again. Our maintenance guys are going to do all they can." BayView Tenants Association President Sylvia Whiteside encourages residents to get involved with the tenants' association so that problems can be addressed more aggressively. "We have a grievance committee and tenants can let us know if management isn't following up on a complaint," she said. "If you don't become active and you don't join the tenants' association, we really have no way of knowing whether housing is doing their job. You also have to know who to call when these problems arise." | |||||
