State Sen. Zellnor Myrie is coming to the aid of a 70-year-old Brooklyn resident, calling on city agencies to make immediate fixes to her moldy Crown Heights apartment.  

“On Friday, he texted me at 4 p.m. saying we need everything out of the apartment because we’re just going to break up all the walls,” said Pradine Saint-Forte, the daughter of the 70-year-old woman who lives in the unit in question. Saint-Forte says her mother has lived there since 1975, and that she’s been dealing with mold in the unit for 17 years.  

Saint-Forte says that this isn’t the first time they’ve torn down the walls – she says the landlord replaced the walls in 2006 and in 2016, but the mold kept returning.  

After paying for hotels and Airbnbs for several days, Saint-Forte reached out to Myrie for help.  

“No one should live in these conditions,” said Myrie. “Force this landlord to make the repairs, and if they don’t make the repairs, the city should make the repairs… this is a health hazard, this is a threat to the safety of these individuals.” 

Myrie is asking local and state lawmakers to take action to prevent tenants from being taken advantage of and hold landlords accountable.  

“There are a number of policy options we are discussing at the state level,” said Myrie. “We should be putting money to defending individuals like this when they are facing… a landlord who only cares about his pockets and not the people in the building.” 

The building manager declined to comment for this story.  

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development told News 12 that it has scheduled an inspection of the apartment for Tuesday and said the following in a statement: 

“HPD takes all housing maintenance issues very seriously as we work to hold owners accountable to correcting conditions using safe work practices. We will be reinspecting the apartment to ensure all safety standards are being upheld, and work to assess any other outstanding complaints.”