East River Houses resident Stephanie Pagan, pictured Oct. 7, has been dealing with mold, chipped paint and lead in her Harlem apartment. | Stephon Patrice Pujols-Johnson/THE CITY
At the East River Houses in East Harlem, for example, the number of unresolved repair requests is up 40% over the last year, to 5,220 this August from 4,370 last August.
Pagan was calling the fire department, she explained, because “the outage box was making sizzling sounds because there is water leakage in the wall coming from above.” The firefighters had to “go knock on each door” to check for children or “anyone on respiration” living there, she said, because of the danger.
The apartment with the leak has been padlocked since its tenant died. Pagan said that person wasn’t found for a week or so.“She was a hoarder,” she continued. “The brown liquid that leaks through my pipes comes from this apartment.” Prior to that, they’d told Pagan that her apartment needed significant work and offered to transfer her to an apartment in another public housing project while that was done.