Woman Says Mold In UWS Apartment Is Making Her Sick

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An Upper West Side mother is having health issues and she says her apartment is to blame.

As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, Candace Greene said mold is the problem, and the management company has been slow to fix it.

Greene and her daughter Rio, 8, said their luxury apartment in The Ormonde building on West 70th Street is making them sick.

"I have a dry cough that's affecting my sleep at night. She has a chronic cough. I have a rash on my body that's very itchy," Greene said.

"I don't want to get sick or injured or anything from it," Rio added.

The problems started in late August, when Greene said there was a leak in the closet of the master bedroom.

Pictures show that things got much worse when Greene discovered mold on the floor, shelf and walls.

It was so bad that three trash bags ended up filled with thousands of dollars' worth of ruined handbags and shoes. They are no longer safe to wear.

"They still have the paper inside," Greene said. "They've never been on my feet."

The single mother and her daughter moved into the rental unit in July, but Greene suspects the mold mess had been going on long before that. She told CBS2 she contacted the management company Carnegie Hill Properties every day – to no avail.

"I'm asking what they plan on doing and all I hear is, 'Contact your insurance company.' The building really doesn't seem to care", Greene said. "(My daughter's) means more to me than anything."

The building conducted a mold test last week, but until results come back, Greene said management gave her no other option but to stay put.

"To what degree; to what level, I don't know, but there's mold in here for sure," Greene said as her daughter Rio coughed.

CBS2 reached out to the management company, Carnegie Hill Properties, several times by phone and email -- but had not gotten a response as of late Thursday night.