The city is providing ongoing support services to former Forest Cove residents and would be “guided by the law and medical professionals,” English said. “We’re always ready and willing to help, with the caveat that we want to make sure that the folks that put them in this position are ultimately held accountable.”
Previously, English said it could cost as much as $2 million to raze the site to make way for new development. He estimates the asbestos clean-up could add upwards of $270,000 to the final bill.
The AJC’s investigative series “Dangerous Dwellings” revealed perilous conditions at Forest Cove and hundreds of other apartment complexes after years of neglect.
Latresa Chaney, a former Forest Cove resident and tenant organizer, said the discovery of asbestos just confirmed what she already knew about the unsafe conditions at the complex. She remembers finding it hard to breathe when she lived at Forest Cove because of mold in her unit, and said her son struggled with respiratory illness.
“We got generations of families over there just breathing in toxins and living in deplorable conditions,” she said.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asbestos can be found in building materials, such as wall insulation, vinyl floor tiles and sheet flooring, roofing, siding, and pipes. Until the 1970s, asbestos was commonly used in building products and insulation materials, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Breathing in the fibers may cause lung disease and the rare but aggressive cancer, mesothelioma, although it may be many years after exposure when people are sickened, according to the EPA.
It’s not clear how the findings will impact former Forest Cove residents, or the city’s proposed lawsuit against Millennia Housing Management.
Millennia, which owned the Section 8 complex through an entity called Phoenix Ridge and says it owns more than 30,000 apartment units nationwide, has received federal subsidies from…
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