Thomas Breen
Mychelle Stancil and her sister, Branazia Walton, outside of their Sherman Avenue home.
Mychelle Stancil and her four children are moving from their West River apartment to Stancil’s mom’s place in Hamden on Friday.
Stancil decided she doesn’t want her two youngest children living in an apartment that she just recently learned contains dangerously high levels of lead paint.
“I don’t want to stay here and have [my kids’ blood lead] levels go up,” Stancil said.
For the past year and two months, Stancil and her children have lived in a four-bedroom apartment on the second floor of 81 Sherman Ave., a two-family home between Gilbert Avenue and Scranton Street. Stancil’s sister, Branazia Walton, lives with her infant child in a two-bedroom apartment on the building’s first floor.
81 Sherman Ave.
The home is owned by the large, local property management company Mandy Management through one of its holding companies, Netz Bonds Keren New Haven II, LLC.
The home happens to be right next door to 75 Sherman Ave., a two-family home that has been at the center of two lead-related lawsuits still working their way through New Haven housing court.
Stancil, a 35-year-old certified nursing assistant (CNA) who works in Wallingford, said that she took her two youngest children in July for regularly scheduled blood tests at Quest Diagnostics on Sherman Avenue. Her four children are ages 2, 3, 9, and 17.
She said her 2‑year-old tested as having blood lead levels of 6 micrograms per deciliter (mg/dL). Her 3‑year-old tested at 8 mg/dL. She said neither child tested as having any lead in their blood before the family moved into the 81 Sherman apartment in June 2017.
Both city and federal law follow the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in identifying any child blood lead level above 5 mg/dL as “abnormal,” or dangerously high and presenting an undue risk for the development of long-term mental and behavioral disabilities.
Paint chips on the ground outside of 81 Sherman’s north side wall.
According to city land records, city lead inspector Glenda Buenaventura visited and inspected Stancil’s apartment on Aug. 7.
An Aug. 15 lead paint abatement order sent from the city’s Health Department to Mandy Management’s Menachem Gurevitch notes that Buenaventura found dangerously high levels of lead paint in the second-floor bathroom, the first and second-floor rear stairwell, and throughout the building’s exterior.
Lead paint on the south side wall of 81 Sherman.
The Health Department also sent Mandy Management a lead soil abatement order on Aug. 15. That order notes that soil on the south side of the building has lead in soil levels as high as 1,850 parts per million (ppm). The soil within the dripline of the north side of the building has lead in soil levels as high as 89,600 ppm.
“The Director of Health has determined that the presence of such lead-based and chipped and flaking paint constitutes health hazards,” the lead paint abatement order’s boiler-plate language reads.
The lead paint abatement order requires Mandy Management to submit a lead abatement plan (LAP) to Buenaventura within five days of receiving the order, begin abatement work within seven days of receiving the notices, and complete abatement work within 30 days of receiving het notice. The lead soil abatement order gives the landlord 45 days to begin abatement of the soil.
Yudi Gurevitch, a property manager with Mandy Management, said on Thursday afternoon that he had not yet received the city’s Aug. 15 lead abatement order for 81 Sherman.
“As soon as we get the lead notice,” he said, “we’ll take immediate steps to abate. We believe every family in New Haven should be lead free.”
Stancil said that she is moving back in with her mom on Friday because she doesn’t want her kids to be exposed to any greater danger from the building’s lead hazards. She said that when Buenaventura inspected the property on Aug. 7, the lead inspector told Stancil not to let her kids play outside until the landlord abates the property.
“I’m paying almost $1,700 per month and my kids can’t even come out and play,” she said.
Stancil said her monthly rent is $1,650. She said that she paid her rent in full for her first 13 months at the property, but that she withheld her August rent after learning about the lead hazards.
“They’re acting like it’s not a serious matter,” she said about her landlord.
The lead disclosure section of Stancil’s June 2017 lease.
She said she is all the more frustrated with Mandy Management because the original June 2017 lease includes a section in which the management company affirmed that it did not know of any lead paint hazards at the property.
“They should have let me know,” Stancil said about the existing lead hazards at 81 Sherman.
“We did not know about the lead paint hazards” when Stancil signed the lease in June 2017, Gurevitch said. “Obviously we wouldn’t have rented the property if we did.”
Stancil said that she also feels neglected by the city, since she had not heard from Buenaventura since that initial Aug. 7 inspection. She said Buenaventura had promised to call her the day after the inspection, and had promised to set up a time to inspect Stancil’s sister’s apartment on the first floor. Walton said that she too has not yet heard back from Buenaventura or anyone else at the city.
The city’s Health Department did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.
Trash piled up behind 81 Sherman.
Stancil said that her complaints with her Sherman Avenue living landlord do not end with the lead hazards in the walls and soil.
Starting two weeks after she first moved in, she said, the landlord’s maintenance workers have used the driveway behind the backyard as a storage space for broken dishwashers, microwaves, and other home appliances.
Just a few dozen feet behind her back door, Stancil showed off a trash-strewn pile of bozes and broken appliances. She said the landlord told her that she wouldn’t be able to use the back garage when she moved in, but she didn’t know that she would have to share the yard with a trash heap and maintenance workers.
“Generally we try to keep that place very clean,” Gurevitch said. He said the pile there on Thursday was likely en route to the dump, and that he would order his maintenance staff to get rid of the trash immediately.
On Friday morning, Gurevitch told the Independent that the back of 81 Sherman had been cleaned of all leftover appliances.
Lead Paint In The Hill And West River
92 Gilbert Ave.
On Aug. 3, the city’s Health Department also issued a lead paint abatement order to landlords Joseph M. Lazarre and Judith Andre for lead hazards on the third floor of their two-family property at 92 Gilbert Ave. in West River.
The order notes that city lead inspector Glenda Buenaventura found dangerously high levels of lead paint in the third-floor kitchen, bedroom, hallway, and stairwell.
The order also notes that the third-floor unit is currently home to one or more children with elevated blood lead levels.
87 Hurlburt St.
The Health Department also sent an Aug. 3 lead paint abatement order to the property management company Ocean Management for lead paint hazards on the second floor of the three-family home at 87 Hurlburt St. in the Hill.
The department’s Aug. 3 order addressed to landlord Shmuel Aizenberg, on behalf of the holding company Ocean 100 Delaware LLC, notes that Buenaventura inspected the property on Aug. 2 and found high lead paint levels in the second-floor kitchen, living room, front porch, stairwell, and several other places throughout the interior and exterior of the building. The order notes that 87 Hurlburt is also home to one or more children with elevated blood lead levels.
Previous coverage:
• Health Officials Grilled On Lead Plans
• Judge Threatens To Find City In Contempt
• Same Mandy House Cited Twice For Lead Paint
• Lead $ Search Advances
• 3 Landlords Hit With New Lead Orders
• Another Judge Rips City On Lead
• Judge To City: Get Moving On Lead
• Health Department Seeks Another $4.1M For Lead Abatement
• City-OK’d Lead Fixes Fail Independent Inspection
• Judge: City Dragged Feet On Lead
• 2nd Kid Poisoned After City Ordered Repairs
• Judge: City Must Pay
• City Sued Over Handling Of Lead Poisonings
• City’s Lead Inspection Goes On Trial
• Eviction Withdrawn On Technicality
• 2nd Child Poisoned; Where’s The City?
• Carpenter With Poisoned Kid Tries A Fix
• High Lead Levels Stall Eviction
• 460 Kids Poisoned By Lead In 2 Years
• Bid-Rigging Claimed In Lead Cleanup
• Judge Orders Total Lead Paint Clean-Up
• Legal Aid Takes City To Task On Lead