Kayla Canne, Asbury Park Press
Mold problem forces Asbury couple from their apartment
Two years ago, Charlotte and Derrick Jackson first discovered mold in their apartment at Asbury Park Gardens. Since then the problem has only grown worse.
Dark speckles line the living room windowsill in Charlotte Jackson’s Asbury Park apartment. At first, she thought it was the residue of dirty water that had seeped in when it rained.
The hidden truth was worse.
Pressing down on the sodden surface reveals a crack, then a line of black fuzz thick like a caterpillar. The drywall beneath the window compresses like soggy cardboard and crumbles at the touch, signs of trapped moisture. The darkened areas are mold, the bane of Charlotte’s existence these last two-plus years. “It’s uninhabitable,” she said of her apartment.
In September, her husband Derrick, 36, said he found the fungus growing behind their bedroom wall and under the bathroom vanity. Two years earlier, the couple said they pulled up carpets in the apartment, revealing rings of black mold stains underneath.
