MARRERO, La. — A tenant living at Cypress Place Apartments in Marrero says she can no longer sleep in her own bedroom because the ceiling collapsed in her apartment. She says the room is no longer livable because rain has fallen through and now the room is covered in mold.
She says her concern is for her two young kids who she says are breathing in the mold daily.
Brittany Jackson and her children sleep on her downstairs couches, because they can't use the upstairs bedroom. Jackson said, "I sleep downstairs, me and my children sleep downstairs, they can't be upstairs with the smell."
The cause is a huge gaping hole in her bedroom, she says it all started back in September, saying, "From September 7 all the way to now, every time it rains, it rains in my house."
Jackson noticed the hallway ceiling was leaking, so she says a contractor came over and ripped it out and covered it with this tarp. Then she noticed leaking in her bedroom. Jackson said, "Then I noticed a spot in my room, and then it got bigger, then it started turning yellow and then it started cracking... everything just falls down, the whole ceiling it just falls down."
She says she emailed a video to property management, dated Nov. 21, the day she says the roof came in. Property management told WWL Louisiana, Jackson didn't report the collapsed ceiling till December, and say over the weekend a roofer came out and patched up the outside of the roof.
Jackson says because of the leaking, her carpets have now molded, saying, "My carpets is literally turning green, it's molding, the smell is strong."
She says her kids' asthma has worsened because of the mold, "They have to be on their medicine because their asthma is bad, sometimes they don't even sleep here, they sleep at my mom's," said Jackson.
She worries another collapse in the living room is imminent, "The rain caused my floor to get wet and all the sheetrock in the floor is sinking. My ceiling right here, right now is turning yellow, so I know next my living room ceiling is going to come down."
Jackson filed a complaint with Jefferson Parish code enforcement on Dec. 3. The Parish said, "The complaint was closed without an inspection occurring as this type of disrepair is not something that is regulated by Jefferson Parish. This type of landlord/tenant dispute is a private matter concerning the contractual agreement of the rental lease between the landlord and the tenant."
HousingNOLA Executive Director Andreanecia Morris says there needs to be tenant protection in Jefferson Parish, saying, "The local or state officials have to have habitability standards for rental properties."
As for Jackson, she just wants to breathe fresh air in her own home, saying, "Do something, fix it, people have children."
Property management say they plan to move Jackson out of her apartment Thursday. Jackson says she hasn't been told if she's getting a new apartment.