SAN DIEGO — Black mold in military housing has forced another local Navy family to move out while the situation is fixed.
“We’ve been here six years and we’re actually locked out of our house,” said Heather Hancock, the Navy wife.
For the past three weeks, Hancock and her family of four – well, actually five if you count their dog, Nala – have been living in a one-bedroom, downtown hotel room, because of the black mold.
Hancock suspects leaks behind the ceiling caused the mold in the three bedrooms, three-story house on Wainright Lane.
She said she had bronchitis and blames the mold for health problems with her kids and husband, who is an active-duty U.S. Navy master-at-arms.
“Migraines, congestion, runny nose, cough, gurgling, choking when you're sleeping at night,” said Hancock.
Living in the downtown hotel means Hancock has to drive her kids to and from school in Serra Mesa.
“The kids are going to two different schools, two different half days. I'm traveling back and forth, at least $40 a day in gas,” she said.
The family would like to be relocated closer to the kids’ schools.
“I'm at least leaving the hotel eight times a day. When we were living (in Serra Mesa), my daughter was walking to and from school. That's why we picked this housing,” Hancock said.
CBS 8 previously reported on mold problems in military housing managed by Lincoln Military Housing, which recently changed its name to Liberty Military Housing, the company that manages the Serra Mesa housing complex.
A lawsuit involving six military families is still pending in San Diego federal court.
“It's family, after family, after family, and black mold is serious,” said Hancock.
Liberty Military Housing emailed CBS 8 the following statement:
“We are committed to providing our residents with safe and healthy communities and homes. We thoroughly investigate all resident concerns, including those relating to water intrusion and mold, to ensure they are immediately and adequately addressed. All water intrusion and mold reports are treated as emergency requests.
On February 20, the resident reported maintenance needs in their home. We immediately recorded a work order for tracking and communicated directly with the resident on next steps, per our policy. We conducted the initial visit the following day and are currently working diligently to resolve the maintenance concerns in the home. The family has been provided temporary accommodations in accordance with the Navy’s displacement policy and our District Manager has been in regular contact with the family. We will ensure this work will be completed to the satisfaction of both our resident and Navy Partners. Our Navy Partner contacted LMH today to express the family’s desire to be relocated to a closer hotel and our team is diligently working to accomplish this.
LMH is proud to put our families first. Along with our service partners, we work diligently and collaboratively to resolve resident issues. LMH has multiple avenues for residents to voice concerns, including a three-step dispute resolution process. Residents can always reach LMH leadership through our executive hotline and their branch's resident advocate program.”
WATCH RELATED: Military families displaced by mold as Lincoln Housing says it's fixing the issue (Nov. 2019).