Mold, Rats and No Hot Water: Will Federal Oversight Improve Public Housing in New York?

Governing: Last October, a water pipe burst on the top floor of one of the 19 towers that make up the Jefferson Houses project in Harlem. It started as a leak in an eighth-floor bathroom. Gravity did the rest. Floor-by-floor, the water and the damage cascaded down. Diana Vazquez, who is 71 years old, lives three floors below the source of the leak, in an apartment that has been her home for 38 years. When water soaked the walls of her bathroom, leaving mold behind, she called the New York City Housing Authority to fix the damage.

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