Single mom has mushrooms growing from floor of low-income housing apartment
BURLINGTON, North Carolina -- Can you imagine seeing mushrooms and mold growing in your children's bedrooms? That's what one single mom in North Carolina is dealing with.
Tawana Crawford lives in low-income housing and says the problem has gotten so bad that one child had to go to the doctor due to respiratory issues from mold exposure.
Mushrooms and mold have been Crawford's unwanted roommates in her Burlington apartment for a couple months. She has three young kids living in the home.
"Them ingesting and breathing this mold is actually giving them respiratory problems," she told WGHP-TV.
Crawford believes the problem stems from water coming out of the tub. She claims she's noticed a pattern of incomplete maintenance forms at the Beaumont Avenue apartments, saying only two maintenance men do work for the hundred units.
Crawford called Burlington code enforcement, who deemed the home was below minimal housing standards for the city. The apartments are privately owned but privately subsidized by HUD.
The reporter wanted to ask why that money isn't going to maintenance but no one was at the manager's office in the two days their camera visited.
"We're placed here. This is subsidized housing so ... this is all that some people can afford," Crawford said. "So just to tell them that they don't matter and their way of living doesn't matter means a lot because technically that's what you're saying if you're not getting out here and fixing the issues at all."
After asking questions, PK Management based in Cleveland says repairs are underway. Minutes later, Crawford had the hole in her kitchen patched up.
"I feel better," she said. "I feel like now something is actually starting to happen."
The station reached out to HUD to find out exactly how much money the apartment complex gets every year in subsidies, but they've not been given the numbers yet.
