LUMBERTON – Heather Walters says she needs help.

The 36-year-old and her baby daughter, Breanna Brooks, live in the affordable Morgan Britt Apartment complex off the 200 block of Graham Circle. Her two-bedroom duplex, and in particular, the bathroom and living room, “is infested” with black mold, she said.

Black mold needs warm temperatures and moisture to grow and spread. It commonly appears in damp or water-damaged areas of the home, such as basements, showers and windows.

Symptoms of black mold exposure include sneezing, coughing, red eyes, postnasal drip and nasal congestion. Black mold exposure can also trigger or worsen asthma conditions.

If you have mold allergies, black mold can make you sick.

How quickly black mold affects you depends on whether you have any allergies or sensitivities to it. The human body is unique, and how an individual reacts to black mold may differ from how others respond to it.

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“I always stay sick. My baby girl always stays sick,” Walters said Tuesday. “My oldest daughter (Hailey Walters) has moved out of this apartment and has not been sick. I feel like it’s the mold constantly making us sick. Every time I cut the heater on and everything blows out, I can’t breathe. I have to raise my bedroom window at night to help me breathe.”

Hailey Walters has been out of her mother’s apartment for nearly a year and is now living on Singletary Church Road with Heather’s mother.

“She has not been sick since she left from this apartment,” Heather Walters said. “I’m always full of a sinus condition, and I stay sick with a headache.”

Her sister, too – Jennifer Walters – has been sick from black mold in a separate apartment building in another part of Lumberton. She has had to drive back and forth to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

“That mold started growing on her lungs, and it turned into MRSA. I recently almost lost my sister. My sister weighs 80 pounds now,” said Walters. “Now they just got her antibiotics to get her back to her health.”

“It’s not just me,” she added of the alleged mold problem in the apartment complex. “There are elderly people out here. Families move out here with their children.”

The Morgan Britt Apartment complex falls under the direction of the Robeson County Housing Authority. It is not under the auspices of the Lumberton Housing Authority, as previously incorrectly reported.

Executive Director Niakeya Cooper of the Robeson County Housing Authority issued the following statement on Friday:

“Robeson County Housing Authority (RCHA) first learned of our resident’s complaint alleging that black mold was present in her unit through an article published in The Robesonian on January 25. We have reviewed prior inspection reports maintained by RCHA and conferred with HUD regarding the existence of any related findings in their records. We have found no evidence of any prior complaints by our resident regarding black mold being made to RCHA or HUD regarding the unit at issue.

” At RCHA’s request,” she said, “a third-party contractor conducted further air testing today (Friday) at the subject unit, and we are awaiting the results. RCHA takes very seriously the health and safety of its residents, having earned the high performer designation from HUD which evaluates the authority on the physical condition and management of its units, among things. Every reasonable measure will be taken to ensure the health and safety of our residents.”

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On Monday, Walters said, she walked around the Morgan Britt Apartment complex where she had 10 neighbors sign a piece with their name and apartment number. Those 10 said they had black mold problems in their respective apartments. Another five, she noted, would not sign the form due to fears of being evicted.

“They say it’s from us not cutting the air vent on in the bathroom,” she was told by apartment management and the complex’s former head maintenance man. “It doesn’t matter whether you cut it on or not.”

Walters said she has visited the Robeson County Department of Public Health where she was told there was nothing that they could do. From there, she was referred to the Robeson County Department of Social Services for public assistance.

Suzanne Jackson, the director of Public Health for Robeson County, reiterated on Tuesday that there was nothing her organization could do. Instead, she said, she would consult with the Department of Public Health’s Environmental Health Division, which conducts inspections.

“We do more inspections of new properties,” Jackson said. “There are a lot of caveats to mold and what kind it is. We do not follow that thing.”

Jackson said the Department of Public Health does give out a hotline number to people who are having problems with mold. The number is 919-707-5900.

The Robesonian could not get a live voice on the phone on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon when calling the county Housing Authority,

No direct phone number could be found online regarding the Morgan Britt Apartment complex in Lumberton, which is funded by HUD’s Public Housing program. Many of the residents who reside in the apartment complex receive low-income family assistance, Walters said.

“I feel like we’re below average,” she added, comparing the haves and the have nots in this world in terms of receiving necessary aid to eradicate such things as mold issues.

She said apartment management has informed her that she cannot do anything on her own to make repairs in her apartment.

She intends to get the names of others who are dealing with the same pesky issues during another walk around the remainder of the complex.

HUD representatives, she said, have visited her apartment with management. But as soon as she opened the door, the people with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development left to move on to the next apartment. Apartment management and the head maintenance man stayed to talk with her.

At that time, the apartment manager accused Walters of doing electrical work in the rental home. “I said, ‘Ms. Kathy, you know I can’t do electrical work. There’s no way I’m going to do electrician’s work.’ ”

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Walters moved into the place nearly 14 years ago.

Initially, she said, there were no signs of black mold in the apartment.

That has changed over time.

Following Hurricane Matthew in 2016, apartment residents were left without power for nearly seven days, she said.

The area was flooded from the nearby river. Morgan Britt management told them the underlying moisture could have come from the air vent being off. That can cause mold to grow on the windows, furniture, dressers.

“To push and press like this,” Walters concluded, “it’s sad you have to go to that extent to do something to fix these apartments.”