Mom of three says her NYCHA apartment is unfit for family to live
Diamond Johnson says problems began on Day 1, when she was told there was no gas in her apartment. She still agreed to move in, without realizing it would take months for a repair.
From one bad living situation to the next – that’s been the unfortunate reality for one pregnant Brooklyn woman and her three children.
Diamond Johnson says problems began on Day 1, when she was told there was no gas in her apartment. She still agreed to move in, without realizing it would take months for a repair.
"I'm still dealing with the problems at hand,” said Johnson. “The neglect of NYCHA.”
By June, she said workers knocked on her door asking to check on a leak — and left her with a small hole in part of her kitchen wall.
"My house started to have this bad odor,” said Johnson. “Smelled like mold and mildew and like bleach and ammonia mixed together."
It's been there ever since.
Johnson and her three kids had just escaped a fire at her old NYCHA building in Harlem before being transferred to Tompkins Houses in January.
She said the effects of smoke inhalation then have only worsened.
"I just came back from the hospital yesterday from this smell,” said Johnson. “My middle child, her asthma flares up. I have to barricade them in the room to play and stuff. This is no place for a kid."
There's also chipped paint and mold in the bathroom.
On July 1, when workers were meant to repair the small hole in her wall, a second but even bigger hole was created, with no timeline for a repair.
Of the dozens of tickets Johnson submitted to NYCHA, she said many of them have been closed without the issue actually being resolved. At this point, she's ready to take NYCHA to court.
"I expect stuff like this from a private building,” said Johnson. “Not NYCHA, where we actually have workers, where we actually have a call center, where we actually could put tickets in, but our tickets are still not being fulfilled."
Shortly after a visit from a News12 reporter, Johnson said NYCHA contacted her, requesting to put a plasterboard over the hole in her kitchen wall. In part of a statement on the matter, a spokesperson from NYCHA told News 12: "NYCHA is coordinating with the resident to schedule all necessary work in this unit for completion before the end of July."
