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Tracy Penner (left) and Cambria Smith, are former Henness Flats residents who both made tough decisions to move out after unexplained illnesses began plaguing them and their children. photo by Jason Kelley |
CommentsThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Saga continues to unfold at Henness Flats
Published: January 14, 2009by Beth Ingalls
Christina Prestella loves living at Henness Flats and just renewed her lease. As an AmeriCorps member currently working at the Sierra Business Council, she believes it would be impossible to afford any other housing in Truckee.
photo by Jason Kelley
Henness Flats is modular, or pre-fabricated, construction. After being built in Idaho by Gerdon Homes, the individual pieces were shrink wrapped, shipped to Truckee and assembled on site by Pacific West Builders.
photo by Jason Kelley
Prop 65, passed by California voters in 1986, requires businesses to post warnings about significant amounts of chemicals in products, homes, and workplaces that may cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. Some residents have complained that this notice, posted at the entrance to the laundry facility at Henness Flats, was put up months after the complex opened.
photo by Jason Kelley
Click on images for slideshow
When reports surfaced late last spring about potentially toxic living conditions, a variety of health complaints and the death of an infant at the Henness Flats affordable housing complex in Truckee, the news was personal for me. After I was elected to the Truckee Town Council in 2002, another councilmember and I sat on a committee to select the company that ultimately would be awarded the contract to develop the future complex.
We hunkered down in a room over the course of several days and heard sales pitches from the four or five different firms in top contention. The Town was new to the business of affordable housing, but we knew we wanted and needed it and the public was clamoring to have projects on the ground as soon as possible. We would have free land to build on near the I-80 off ramp courtesy of the Gray’s Crossing Development agreement with East West Partners.
We learned quickly that creating affordable housing is a delicate, complex dance of managing time, land, infrastructure and building costs with local, state and federal grants and loans and the mandatory requirements and strings that those monies come with.
The company we chose after careful consideration was Pacific West Communities (PWC). PWC specializes in “the construction and rehabilitation of affordable workforce housing...with a particular emphasis on the use of the affordable housing tax credit,” according to their website. The Pacific Companies, which is actually a corporate triad that includes PWC, Pacific West Builders and Pacific West Architecture, is based in Boise, Idaho, and has 60 developments in 11 western states.
The multi-family affordable housing product would be factory built by Guerdon Homes in Idaho, then assembled, shipped and put up on site by Pacific West Builders. PWC had demonstrable experience and proven track record, a polished, yet folksy presentation, and, of particular interest to me, assured us that the buildings would be environmentally friendly, even green.
For Cambria Smith, a former Henness Flats resident, the idea that PWC could have labeled their affordable housing units as “green” elicited a loud guffaw when I first spoke with her this past September. Smith had been among the first residents to qualify for and move into the complex when it opened in September 2007. She began feeling sick almost immediately. After several months of trying to make sense of her symptoms and ill health, she discovered that her neighbors were also experiencing a variety of unusual ailments ranging from bloody noses and sore throats to dizziness and odd skin rashes. She finally stumbled upon formaldehyde as a possible cause during an online search. Smith took action and spearheaded the formaldehyde testing process at the apartment complex. Contrary to previously published reports, it was Smith and not the Sierra Club who actually carried out the testing of several units within the complex including her own and the unit where the baby had died.
Smith has been in and out of local clinics for months attempting to get a proper diagnosis for persistent stomach pain and internal bleeding. She’s very concerned by the fact that her son has been diagnosed with liver damage. Like Smith, a majority of Henness residents are on Medi-Cal, and have very limited local options and resources for health care. Obtaining referrals to see specialists out of the area is a difficult and lengthy process.
After months of wrangling with Henness management, Smith was finally let out of her lease, but lost her security deposit and still owes several hundred dollars worth of back rent.
Once formaldehyde issues were brought to light as a potential problem, the property management company at Henness Flats, Cambridge Real Estate Services, was quick to provide informational flyers about the chemical to residents and PWC responded by hiring an independent environmental company, LACO and Associates, to test the units for formaldehyde levels. Between May 14 and June 17, LACO tested a total of 61 units out of the 92 at Henness. One or more staff members from the Nevada County Department of Environmental Health were on site during the testing to ensure proper protocols were followed. The results were analyzed by Dr. Richard Kreutzer, Chief of the Environmental Health Investigations Branch for the California Department of Public Health.
In a letter released July 2, Kreutzer stated that indoor air concentrations of formaldehyde in the units at Henness “are not higher than those routinely found in new residences elsewhere in California, and measured levels are lower than those where health effects are reported.” Based on the findings, Kreutzer concluded that “relocation of residences from these apartments due to indoor formaldehyde is not necessary or appropriate. Nonetheless, efforts should be taken to help residents reduce their exposures below the guidance levels.”
PWC was pleased with Kreutzer’s findings. Caleb Roope, PWC President and CEO, was surprised when the formaldehyde problem surfaced. According to Roope, “we’ve never had any other issues in any of our developments. From a building materials standpoint, ours are up to standards – we’ve met the standards.”
But what are the standards? Formaldehyde is a chemical used widely as a component in adhesives and resins and is ubiquitous in common building materials like particleboard, fiberboard, paneling and plywood, all of which are used in modular construction like Henness Flats. While formaldehyde is classified as a carcinogen and a toxic air contaminant by the state of California and the World Health Organization, and is known to outgas from the products that contain it for years upon years, there are no federal or state standards for formaldehyde in residences. Agencies instead use guidelines to determine acceptable levels of exposure for the home and the workplace and the ranges vary significantly from 3 ppb (parts per billion) for chronic exposure (long term) to 77 ppb for acute exposure (8 hours or less). Several state organizations in California, according to Kreutzer’s letter, have “endorsed the 27 ppb level as a target value for indoor exposures in schools and homes.” Kreutzer also states, “Indoor concentrations in homes typically average in the 10 to 30 ppb range.”
In the Henness study conducted by LACO, the average of the 61 tested units was below 100 ppb, with individual levels ranging from 10 to 91 ppb, but the mean formaldehyde level for occupied units that were tested was 46 ppb, still well above the 27 ppb target level referenced above.
Mary Marsh Linde, an attorney who has been working pro bono for some of the Henness residents, rushed into the Truckee courthouse one morning for an appearance on behalf of Margaret Deto, who had been attempting to get out of her lease and was subsequently evicted. Adding insult to injury for this tenant who was trying to prove that her unit was un-inhabitable, the judge had ordered the low income Henness resident to pay PWC’s legal fees, a whopping $86,000. Linde calls these tactics part of a “scorched earth policy” and a sure way to demonstrate to other tenants the futility of trying to take a stand against PWC. The amount Deto owes has since been reduced to $10,000, but she and her son Christian, both of whom are suffering from a variety of ailments such as seizures and stomach problems, have been left homeless because of the eviction.
It was in the waiting room at the courthouse where I struck up a conversation with Jack Goshow, an industrial hygienist and certified microbial consultant from Reno who has been doing independent testing on Henness units for Linde on behalf of various tenants. Goshow had a file folder full of photos taken under the crawlspaces of three different units and our conversation quickly moved from formaldehyde to another issue – mold. Goshow has sampled visible mold below units, as well as air and dust in seven apartments in three different buildings at the complex. According to Goshow there is an “unusual level of mold growth in the crawlspaces which can seep up into the apartments through loose or absent seals around pipes and other means.” Though all the apartments are equipped with exhaust fans which are intended to lower the unusually high humidity in the crawlspaces and draw the air to the outside of the building through a vent located about 1 foot off the ground, Goshow believes that because there are pathways for the air to leak into the apartments, it’s reasonable to believe that tenants could be feeling the effects of airborne mold allergens.
Tracy Penner, another former tenant who works as a home health aide, described a feeling like having a “fishbone stuck in her throat” for several months before she was told she had fungus in her esophagus. Penner realized fairly quickly that when she was away from Henness for several days because of her job, her symptoms seemed to diminish. When she gave Cambridge a 30-day notice of her intention to leave Henness, but was unable to get out of her lease, she had to make a difficult decision. Because of her poor health and worries about her young son, who was also ill, Penner moved out in May anyway and has been staying with friends so that her son can continue to attend school in Glenshire. She recently received a bill for $4,000 to make up for the six months left on her lease.
At the other end of the spectrum is Christina Prestella who loves her living situation at Henness and just signed on for another year. She is pleased with the management and feels they’ve been good about keeping her informed about the formaldehyde issue and providing test results for her apartment. While she has had her worries about the potential long-term effects of the chemical, she feels fortunate that she hasn’t had any symptoms but admits that she is “young and healthy.”
Pacific West’s Caleb Roope and I, the same man who sold me on his company five years ago at Town Hall, talked on the phone for nearly an hour. We discussed the formaldehyde issue, tenant’s rights, the possibility of mold in the units, and steps his company was taking to make things better. “We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to figure out if we had a problem or not. The court determined that our units are habitable,” he asserted. “We learned a lot – we’ve incorporated new things into our new developments and I endorse that.” Roope says it’s now standard practice to install active air exchange systems and formaldehyde-free cabinets and countertops. They’ve been able to implement some of these new practices just up the road at Frishman Hollow, another PWC affordable housing complex. As far as health issues with current and former Henness residents, Roope says “I want to help them, I really do. I don’t know what to say. If someone’s not well, I want to help.” But this statement seems to be directly opposed to another recent mandate for Henness residents. Asked about the reason why tenants who are seeking relocation to Frishman must first sign a disclosure stating that they will never file health claims against PWC, Roope wasn’t as clear. He did say, “Some people are just not satisfied no matter what.” In terms of mold, he said that could be “another issue to dig into.” In the meantime, as long as the standards, or lack thereof, for formaldehyde exposure remain unchanged, Roope feels his company is doing everything they can and should for their customers. “If evidence exists that a lower recommended level of exposure is better, the marketplace will respond to the policies if they are in place.”
It was New Year’s Eve day, but I wasn’t feeling particularly celebratory as I pulled into Henness Flats and parked adjacent to the management office and common area in the center of the complex. While I waited to meet David Griffith, Truckee’s Housing and Redevelopment Director, I strolled around the perimeter of the buildings and then decided to walk through a door leading into the laundry facilities. A sign was posted prominently next to entrance – “This Facility Contains Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer and Birth Defects and other reproductive harm.” I lingered in the room awhile, taking in the stark white machines and glancing at a December newsletter hanging from a thumbtack sideways on the wall. It contained nothing specific to Henness Flats, but generic fare such as how to protect one’s family from the hazards of holiday house fires and various recipes for Christmas treats. It originated not from Cambridge or PWC, but from the Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing in Merced.
When David arrived we walked and chatted for a quite a while in the parking lot. I shared informational tidbits about some of the interviews I had conducted over the course of the last few months. I wondered how involved he had been in any discussions with tenants or management or if he had been in touch with PWC as the formaldehyde stories were breaking.
Griffith made it clear that “officially, the Town didn’t have a role,” but that he could see the Town working more effectively as a liaison between tenants, property managers and developers in the future. The town is currently formalizing a contract with the Family Resource Center, a local nonprofit, so that the FRC can begin to provide basic affordable housing services for the Town. Griffith hopes this new alliance will help with the flow of information so that, “if I hear things aren’t going well, I can get involved and help find solutions.”
Griffith and I eventually wandered into the property management office and met with Marea Hunter from Cambridge Real Estate Services. Based in Portland, Oregon, Cambridge manages not only Henness and Frishman Hollow, but Truckee Pines and the Truckee Donner Senior apartments too. In all, they manage 34 different complexes in California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The circulating fan under Hunter’s desk was whirring loudly as I soaked in the surroundings. She and Griffith discussed the possibility of Hunter attending future meetings of the Town’s affordable housing working group and how the rental business was going. Hunter explained that the 92 apartments at Henness Flats are currently 85 percent occupied, while 18 of 32 units at Frishman are rented out.
As I pulled away that afternoon, reflecting on what I had learned over the last few months and how I would begin to weave all the details together to write this piece, I realized that I had a sour taste in my mouth. Literally, because I could actually taste the chemical I had so often heard described, and figuratively, because I was dismayed at the fact that our good intentions have gone so wrong.
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