Nine years ago, News10 fielded dozens of calls about mold contamination in homes and apartments and covered numerous stories about toxic mold making people sick. Some of those complaints led to class-action lawsuits and million-dollar settlements.
Now, residents at some Citrus Heights apartments say toxic mold they thought was eradicated appears to be making a comeback.
This isn't the first time Oakcreek Apartments has had mold concerns. Back in 1998, the Oakcreek Apartments on Fair Oaks Boulevard was known as the Fairways, home to 200 tenants who complained about their units being infested with mold.
Thursday, Charity Berry and six other residents met with attorney John Miller amid claims that the mold was back.
Berry showed Miller, an attorney who has won numerous mold lawsuits, home video she took in her unit. Pointing to the screen, she said, "That's the window sill on the bottom where it meets the wall and you can see mold all along there."
Black stains that Berry believes are mold are even worse in video taken in her bathroom. "I'm just kind of grossed out. I don't want to stay there any more. It's expensive to move. I'm kind of stuck," Berry said.
Miller told tenants they need to have their apartments tested to be certain their units are tainted with mold. "They can conduct air testing. They can conduct carpet and dust sampling," Miller said.
The meeting came after Miller received numerous recent calls from residents at the complex. Miller said after he got involved, apartment owners Lyon Management Group of Newport Beach took action.
"There was a flurry of activity relative to potential releases presented to tenants saying, 'We'll move you out, sign this, take $1,000 and go away,'" Miller said.
"We can only deal with things when they're brought to our attention," Lyon Management attorney Greg Ozhekim said. Ozhekim told tenants the landlord was interested in making the tenants happy.
"I know when specific concerns have been raised with us, we've gotten our experts to go in there and look at the issue immediately and if there's a problem we've taken care of it," Ozhekim said.
He said the complex asked Citrus Heights health officials to inspect one apartment and the tenants were allowed to stay because "what they found wasn't that bad," Ozhekim said.
Mike Kyle, a resident who put up with the 1998 scare, wasn't so sure how to approach the latest concerns. "I moved out of (apartment) 317, that's where I had mold. I was paid and moved downstairs to where I live now," Kyle said.
But Kyle said almost immediately, mold started showing up in his new apartment as well. "I've got mold in my shower in the bathroom, all around the sinks, in the window sills," Kyle said. Despite the concern, Kyle admitted he hasn't complained to management.
But other residents said they know toxic mold can make them sick and they want their landlord to do something about it. "I want to move. I want them to pay for me to move. They did it for people before, but instead they're telling me I can move if I want to," Berry said.
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