Only on CBS2: Bronx NYCHA resident says she's "living in hell" as leaks ruin apartment, belongings
NEW YORK -- A NYCHA apartment in the Bronx is leaking so badly, it looks more like a rainforest filled with muddy water than a home fit for humans.
The family living there called CBS2's Lisa Rozner, saying NYCHA's given them the run-around for two years.
All over the three-bedroom apartment at St. Mary's Park Houses in the South Bronx, water drips through now-cracked ceilings. Buckets of brown and black water line the hallways and rooms of the apartment Narelin Sabio shares with her four kids.
When she wakes up every morning, Sabio says her living room is soaked.
"I do this like maybe six times a day," she said. "Every day, it's a different leak from every different place."
The leaks have ruined her 6-year-old daughter's bedroom, and the smell was so bad, Sabio held her nose when she showed Rozner.
"Mices have come out through there," she said. "This is not safe for her to sleep."
Sabio says she's been putting in work orders with NYCHA since the leaks started in spring 2020. All the orders from the summer for leaking have been closed.
She says someone came earlier this week but didn't do anything.
"They take pictures, they make promises, 'Oh, we're going to replace it somewhere,' and they don't do anything," Sabio said.
"Can they please help us because my mom has been making tickets after tickets after tickets and they been declining them or cancelling them and it's frustrating," 11-year-old Jose Ocampo said.
In February, Sabio says workers ripped out the moldy cabinets, counters and sink and left her with a makeshift sink.
"The safe way to cook, I'm not able to do that," she said. "Most of the time I buy my food because it's very uncomfortable."
Sabio says almost every day, a piece of furniture gets damaged. She has two chairs that need to go in the garbage, and they've already had to throw away parts of their sectional couch.
Sabio estimates the damage has cost her at least $10,000, including her 11-year-old's Playstation.
"Stuff that I really, really like, the leak goes on it and I can't get it back now," Jose said.
"I'm also not happy because my bike was thrown away from the leak," 6-year-old Leahny Ocampo said.
"I'm afraid of that that any moment when we sleeping, something's going to, the whole ceiling might come down on us," Sabio said. "It's a nightmare, living in hell. I just wanna move from here to a safe place because I think I deserve to live like a human."
NYCHA told CBS2 the leaks are being caused by a break in a pipe. Plumbers are coming Thursday, and the agency expects repairs to be finished by the end of September.
Sabio says earlier in September, NYCHA did show her a different apartment to move to, but she says it was in an unsafe area and also was uninhabitable. She says she also brought NYCHA to housing court.
