Chronic leaks, sewage runoff and black mold that’s sprouted into mushrooms have made a three-story East New York apartment building nearly uninhabitable — and the tenants inside say their landlord is neglecting repairs while the city's response has failed to help them.
The building sits in a neighborhood known as “The Hole'' near the border of Brooklyn and Queens. The area is built upon a low-lying creek bed and has no sewer lines, which causes its streets to flood regularly and its buildings to rely on septic tanks to dispose of wastewater. Decades ago, the area was known as a place where the mafia dumped bodies.