South Kansas City Apartment Mold Worries Mother Over Family’s Health Impact

A Continuous Struggle Against Mold Contamination and Negligent Management

South Kansas City, MO. – A mother residing in the city is concerned that the persistent mold in her apartment could drastically affect her family’s health. A trail of paperwork reveals her struggle involving failed inspections due to high mold levels, doctor’s opinions linking respiratory illnesses to mold exposure, and a management team at the apartment complex showing marginal concern over the issue.

Kymesha Swinton and her four children have taken to spending ample time away from home, feeling that the conditions inside their apartment at the Canyon Creek complex are unsafe. “There’s no way my kids should be uncomfortable in their own house,” she expressed, voicing her frustration over the living conditions that seem to worsen as time goes on.

Failures in Eliminating The Hazardous Mold

Swinton has been dealing with the mold issue for weeks in her unit, particularly in her bathroom and her sons’ bedroom. She said, “I put in maintenance request after maintenance request. Again, still nobody. I called over there and got hung up on. I physically went over there, and only then do they wanna send somebody over here.”

Her persistence finally led to a maintenance crew visiting her apartment, where they found the wall behind the medicine cabinet teeming with mold. They attempted to eradicate the problem by bleaching the area and repainting the wall. But that, according to Swinton, has so far failed to address the root cause of the problem.

Independent Inspection Verifies Mold Contamination

With the apartment’s walls turning colors and the ceiling eroding, the desperate mother sought external assistance, leading her to contact the Kansas City Health Department’s Healthy Homes Rental Inspection Program. The objective of this program is to ensure that all renters in KCMO have access to a safe and healthy home environment.

The city inspectors responded promptly and carried out mold tests on the walls of Swinton’s apartment. Their findings confirmed Swinton’s fears. “There was mold everywhere in the bathroom, inside the wall,” she highlighted. An urgent report was filed by the city, issuing a 24-hour deadline for the apartment complex to rectify the situation. According to Swinton, the staff merely opened the infected wall, sprayed some solution, sealed the wall, and left a fan to dry the area.

“Not a Permanent Solution.”

However, re-inspection by the Health Department on the following day deemed the remediation efforts unsuccessful. Swinton quoted the maintenance team attributing the constant mold presence to a “piping issue”, suggesting that until the damaged pipes repai, the mold re-infestation will keep recurring.

The Health Impact on the Family

Meanwhile, the rising mold levels have caused health concerns for Swinton’s family. Upon visiting the doctor, they discovered that all four of her children exhibited symptoms of upper respiratory infections. “My daughter’s been staying at my parents house because she has a bad cough; all the kids have upper respiratory infections; I have one,” shared a worried Swinton.

Seeking a Permanent Solution

While Swinton continues her desperate battle for a healthier living space for her children, she has spoken out, hoping to prevent others from encountering similar circumstances. “That’s all I wanted is the issue to be fixed the right way,” she emphasized. As of now, Swinton keeps her children from entering the mold-infested room and awaits proper remediation efforts from the apartment’s management team.