Families complain of mold at Navy housing - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Families complain of mold at Navy housing

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Angela Johnson and her three children have been living in a hotel since Dec. 2.

That’s because the private firm that manages her Navy housing complex says her mold-infested home in the Sandpiper Crescent housing area in Virginia Beach is uninhabitable.

It’s not for lack of trying to get it fixed. Johnson had been complaining about water leaking through bathroom exhaust fans upstairs ever since she and Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class (SW) Phillip Johnson and their children moved in 13 months ago.

“I got to the point where I was running out of buckets,” Johnson said.

One day in July, she came home from a Norfolk Tides baseball game with her son’s Scout troop and went upstairs. The bathtub was full of rotted, blackened pieces of drywall from the ceiling, which had collapsed. She says she called the local office of Lincoln Family Housing, which manages the area, 20 times in order to it fixed.

A worker finally came to collect the debris, but the ceiling was left open until August; Johnson said Lincoln said they first had to find the leak. It was finally patched, but she says no remediation to remove mold took place. And, it still leaks, she said.

Frustrated, Johnson went to the local media. WTKR-TV’s stories got the attention of Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va.

“He was disturbed about the levels of mold … and he’s disturbed that it’s just now coming out,” said Kim Mosser, Rigell’s press secretary.

Friday, a shirt-sleeved Rigell came to meet Johnson at her home and to visit several other families — with Navy Region Mid-Atlantic officials, the admiral who leads Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, and reporters trailing behind. He spent nearly an hour with each, patiently listening and showing particular interest in the gaps between reporting the problems and the promptness and quality of Lincoln’s response.

“I am stunned by what I have seen and heard today,” Rigell said in a statement released following his visits. “These conditions are deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable. Our men and women in uniform deserve far better.”

While Johnson was naturally upset about the fallen drywall, she was more concerned about the black dots that speckled the pieces. Their 6-year-old son Logan has asthma — which she said he developed two years earlier when they lived in a smaller home across the street. She told Rigell she was told, “There’s no mold. It’s just water damage.”

Rigell grimaced. “This is where the stories start to diverge,” he said. “These are the kinds of things we need to reconcile.”

All told, the Johnsons are due to have repairs done on three ceiling areas and on two floors and two walls, and to have the entire home’s carpeting replaced, she said. The work was due to begin Friday, but a last-second holdup for the results of air quality tests may have delayed them further, she said.

It shouldn’t have been this hard, she said.

“I think it’s really sad that I had to go on the news and write two letters to my congressman to get things done,” said Johnson.

She’s keeping her husband informed of developments. He is at sea aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp. His thoughts? “He’s furious,” she said. “Absolutely furious.”

A total of nine complaints are being investigated, although family members interviewed say they’re sure there are many more problems.

Lincoln Military Housing operates housing areas around 29 U.S. military installations in the U.S. It manages 25 housing areas alone on the Southside of Hampton Roads, home to Naval Station Norfolk, Naval Air Station Oceana and more, according to the firm’s website.

Asked if the region feels it has a problem with moldy housing units, Beth Baker, spokeswoman for Mid-Atlantic Region, replied: “We have nine families who feel they have a problem out of 4,300 units.”

She acknowledged Navy concern with the situation, adding: “We have asked Lincoln to take a hard look [at] their maintenance practices.”

Mid-Atlantic’s top officer says the Navy “has been engaged” with Lincoln “since we were first informed of this issue.”

In a statement released by his office, Rear Adm. Tim Alexander said that Navy staff, including engineers and technicians, have visited with “several” residents to assess their homes, and have begun meeting with the nine families.

Rigell said he wants improvements, particularly with regard to how quickly Lincoln is responding to complaints.

“Response times to legitimate concerns are often excessively long and when assistance is offered, it is often times inadequate,” he said. “This is particularly troubling when the problem involves chronic moisture resulting in mold. This is patently wrong, and it potentially represents a serious threat to our men and women in uniform — and their children. It is going to change today.”

That won’t come too soon for Johnson’s neighbors a few doors down.

“We’ve been trying for four years to get them to come out,” said Reneé Quintela, wife of Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Adam Quintela of Amphibious Construction Battalion 2.

The ceiling over their tub also leaked and rotted, although it hadn’t yet collapsed. It’s been patched, but not permanently. The floor near the toilet also had to be torn up recently, revealing a subfloor covered with black dots.

Rigell, viewing photos on a downstairs computer screen, asked if the repairs were made in a timely fashion. They were, the couple said. Was it fixed properly? “The toilet rocked,” she said. The solution: a repairman came out, placed wooden shims under the toilet and broke off the excess. “But you could still see the shims,” Adam Quintela said.

The speckled floor received a similarly incomplete treatment. “Did he remediate?” Rigell asked. “I don’t think he did anything to the floor before he put the next stuff down,” she said.

The Quintelas, who have two children ages 8 and 10, had also been listening to skittering feet above the ceiling over the past four winters. There were squirrels, for sure — some were trapped — and rodent droppings. It turned out that the unit on the opposite side of their home from the Johnsons had been missing a long piece of soffit that allowed critters to enter at will.

Thursday, workers came and removed nearly 15 bags worth of material the Quintelas assumed was fouled insulation — they’d left the house while the work was being done — but Friday afternoon, to their surprise, they returned and installed new insulation.

“I can’t blame the Navy for that,” he said. “I can wish the Navy had better oversight.” But, he added, “I have strong feelings about Lincoln right now.”

Elsewhere, Lincoln has a good reputation, said Sarah Gurule, who lives across the street with her husband, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Mykel Gurule of the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion.

“We sought out Lincoln when we moved here because they were so good at Camp Pendleton,” she said. “Not once in 6½ years did we have an issue with Lincoln.”

Not so in Sandpiper Crescent. For one, her stairway is not stable.

“Tipped forward,” she said. “It’s now five times I’ve had to call to have them fixed.”

She said they don’t have a mold problem but given the similarities to the descriptions of the Johnson and Quintela problems, one could be festering.

“My daughter’s ceiling is now squishy,” Gurule said. “There’s a previous patch that’s making itself noticeable. It bows down.”

Next week, families in managed homes with repair issues who have not yet spoken up can have their say. Alexander announced two forums on housing issues in Lincoln-managed homes so families can “address any concerns and issues they have and provide the residents an opportunity to talk to experts and Navy leadership. Dates and times were not announced.

“The Navy will continue to work with Lincoln to insure [sic] that this issue is appropriately resolved,” he said. “Taking care of our military families in Hampton Roads is a top priority.”