Looking south at NYCHA’s Amsterdam Houses at West End Avenue and 63d Street. Photo by Jim.henderson, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Teresa is a registered nurse, mother of two, grandmother, and a long-time Upper West Sider. She is also essentially a prisoner in her own home, reportedly trapped by a years-long failure of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to transfer her from an apartment where the walls are encased with mold and mildew and opening a window means inviting in dust and debris from a construction project that already wreaks havoc on her apartment and nasal passages.
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She has lived at the Amsterdam Houses, the NYCHA complex between West 61st and 64th streets from Amsterdam to West End avenues, since 2018. When she moved in, she did so in the midst of an exterior construction project that saw scaffolding, netting, and wooden planks set up all over the complex’s thirteen buildings.
That construction – ongoing for the last seven years – meant tenants could not open their windows for even the simplest of reasons, like for fresh air. “They told us not to,” Teresa told ILTUWS. “If we did, the dust from the drilling on the bricks would come in. But it came in anyway. It still does.” And when it rains, water comes in from around the windows and walls now, too.
Teresa tells ILTUWS that keeping up with the daily aftermath of the construction consumes her life. She explained that she has two air purifiers always running and is constantly replacing filters that are supposed to last four months. She mops her floors daily to get rid of the dust, which also makes its way into the closets and drawers. She now keeps her belongings in plastic bins which accumulate a fresh coat of daily dust as well.
It’s taking a physical toll. “I can’t sleep well. I feel like I am breathing in fiberglass all day like something invisible is cutting the inside of my nose. I have shortness of breath and must take antibiotics for mold toxicity.”
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She also tells us that her seven-year-old granddaughter who lives with her has developed her own medical issues.
Teresa has seen numerous doctors who ruled out COVID-related reasons and blood clot concerns. She is waiting to see a pulmonologist and has been for months, the long delay likely related to a high demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. She told us that her allergist believes her respiratory issues are based on mold toxicity because of her living conditions – and provided the Amsterdam Houses with documentation of this diagnosis in the summer of 2022 – but that “they didn’t do anything.”
READ MORE: 2022 ‘Worst Landlord Watchlist’ Includes These UWS Building Owners
Her apartment smells like mold and mildew. The ceiling in her kitchen is peeling and cracking. There is mold below the sink and on the walls. To get rid of the latter, a crew will need to demolish the old wall and put up a new one. The catch is that she has nowhere to go, but the city’s expectation is that she stays in her apartment while this work takes place.
No one has clarified for Teresa how staying in her apartment during demolition would be conducive to her health or how it would be safe to do so, particularly given the unexpected collapse of a wall inside her apartment a few years ago during another mold removal. She asked about a temporary stay in a hotel but that was referred to a non-city agency which does not offer that form of assistance.
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Teresa is stuck. And reportedly no one is helping. One small bit of good news is that the scaffolding is gone from outside of her window, but it is still present in the complex. But that small bit of good news is overshadowed by what will surely come.
“I’m dreading when they start to take [the remaining scaffolding] down because it brings tremendous amounts of dust, glass like fibers in the apartments.”
Teresa’s predicament is made more problematic by the fact that it was likely avoidable. She requested a transfer back in 2020 and was told it would be expedited due to an injury she had suffered at work. However, nearly three years later, she is still waiting. “They just told me three weeks ago that the computer did not pick me yet.”
We’ve reached out to NYCHA for comment and will provide an update if and when the city agency responds back to us.
I appreciate your investigation of this. These are completely unacceptable living conditions!
I also live in the the Amsterdam Houses. Most of the buildings are without of gas since the beginning of October. I’ve contacted elected officials but none have done anything.
I’m sorry but it can take a long long time for NYCHA to reinstate gas service. Once gas is turned off they have to inspect and repair if needed every single apartment’s plumbing and fixtures before it can be turned back on. That means getting access to every apartment, bringing in a qualified inspector and having a licensed plumber ready to do the repairs. Otherwise there can be a gas leak when you turn the gas back on. Good luck.
This is a terrible situation, and the landlord has a legal and moral obligation to fit it, but why is a registered nurse making so little money that she qualifies for NYCHA housing? Is she not working because she is disabled? RNs likely earn $100k per year or more.
REFERENCING ‘EH”
It is highly unlikely that this woman earns 100K a year..and neither does my niece..She is obviously not a “traveling nurse” ..She obviously is not the only NYer in the ‘hood living this nightmare deterioration..READ the entire article again..you might come to a different conclusion about this situation..Thank you
thank you for sharing this news. Hope people share it forward to help her out. Keep bringing this situations up in your site.
It is truly an outrage – where are our local elected offiicials?
This is upsetting. I’m guessing there’s been no reduction in rent for shoddy, unlivable conditions. Can NY1 get involved? A pro-bono lawyer? This shouldn’t be happening to anyone, let alone a frontline health professional who has dedicated her life to the welfare of others. Come on, New York. Do better.
In the 4 years I’ve lived on UWS, the place has deteriorated so badly, it’s BLATANTLY OBVIOUS.
let me ask you:
do you forget where you are when you’re driving up Amsterdam and begin “remembering Tehran or Moscow in the late ’60’s”?
do you forget where you are when you look up and see structures that are so appallingly unattractive and yet so tasteless you believe you might be in Riyahd or Kosovo?
do you forget where you are when you walk your dog at 8PM and you watch rats the size of raccoons dart across the sidewalk in from of you?
do you forget where you are when the Utilities Company has been digging up and filling in the EXACT same places on the street for the last 2 years?
do you forget where you live when at least 1/2 the apartments that face one of the country’s best elementary through high school have gapingly open windows and no electricity, have garbage piling up on the streets in front and have nobody complain?
do you forget where you live when you march past a century old church that has been scaffolded off for years and has homeless and their detritus strewn all around and under and it all looks like virus-growing Biohazard?
do you forget where you live when randomly but much more frequently, Joe public gets punched in the face for fun?
I’d say I have amnesia. Or do I remember this joint as the chic cool eclectic creative Upper West Side, home to artists, actors, photographers and authors?
Don’t give up.
Get active.
DEMAND the MAYOR and your CongressWoman get to work NOW!
WRITE here:
Mayor: https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/mayor-contact.page
Congresspeople: https://council.nyc.gov/gale-brewer/staff-directory/
NYCHA is a local, state, and national embarrassment.