CINCINNATI — A mother is searching for answers after two infants died in the span of two years inside an Over-the-Rhine apartment building where she and other tenants say mold is making them sick.
“I just want justice for my kids, that’s all. I want answers,” said De’Nashia Shepard, who lost a 1-month-old daughter in 2023 and a 2-month-old son last May. “It feels terrible … It’s just taken a toll on me.”
WATCH: How residents describe the conditions in their POAH apartments
Both of her infants died in their sleep, and in both cases, the Hamilton County Coroner’s office listed the cause as sudden infant death but noted that bedsharing could be a factor.
“They had blood … coming out of their mouths, both of my kids,” Shepard said.
Shepard spent three years living in a multi-unit apartment building at Back and Hamer streets near Grant Park. The large brick structure was built in 1860 and is owned by Preservation of Affordable Housing, or POAH, which is one of Cincinnati’s largest low-income housing providers.
Many other tenants at this building said mold is making them very ill. They did not want to be identified for fear of eviction, but complained of severe headaches, hair loss, rashes, diarrhea, congestion and breathing problems. They believe the source is a basement just below Shepard’s former apartment.
Michelle Reynolds, who lives next door to Shepard’s old unit, hired professional mold testing with Action Mold Pros in Newport in July. The company noted an abnormal level of mold in her unit and a nearby unit, and a high level of Stachybotrys, which is often known as black mold.
‘She always had a runny nose’
“When I first moved in, my mom smelled the mold; she was telling me it smelled like mold,” said Shepard, who moved into the building in 2022. “My daughter … she always had a runny nose, was always sick. I was always sick too, sore throat and all that.”
In 2023, a 16-year-old girl living in a nearby unit inside the building died. Her autopsy report listed the cause as sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, but her mother said she never had seizures until she moved into the building a few years before.
The WCPO 9 I-Team first reported on POAH problem properties in July, with tenants complaining of raw sewage, rat infestations and violent criminals staying inside buildings. Since then, city officials have ramped up their enforcement of code violations.
“The problems that POAH residents are describing are dire. Many of these tenants are already in vulnerable situations, so for hazardous and unsafe conditions to persist at their homes is unacceptable,” said Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long.
POAH agreed to increased oversight after meeting with city officials in July. The city’s Residential Rental Inspection program is now overseeing all POAH properties due to the outstanding building code violations, a city spokesperson said.
“I am thankful that POAH leadership has agreed to collaborate, and the enactment of the RRI program will allow the city to swiftly begin addressing urgent health and safety issues,” Long said. “Through this program, we will hold POAH accountable and protect residents.”
On Sept. 2, city officials began inspections and expect it could take three months to evaluate all 148 buildings that contain 969 apartments. That was POAH’s local portfolio as of July.
Since July, WCPO has spoken to additional tenants and former POAH employees who describe poor living conditions such as a lack of heat, broken stoves and refrigerators, leaking pipes, rats and mold.
“I don’t think POAH has been living up to the standards they should live up to. I think they’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Nick DiNardo, a managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati. “It appears that a lot of basic preventive maintenance is not getting done. We’re getting lots of calls about appliances not working. Lots of calls about water leaks and potentially mold developing because of that.”
POAH is a national nonprofit based in Boston that operates in 13 states. It acquired many historic buildings from The Model Group in 2018 in Over-the-Rhine, Pendleton and the West End, with help from the city and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
“The decision-making for POAH does not occur in Cincinnati; it occurs somewhere else, and that really slows down the process of just getting basic repairs made,” DiNardo said. “What I’d like the city to do is bring POAH into compliance … so that tenants can have safe, decent, affordable housing to live in.”
The I-Team asked for a response from POAH on Aug. 25. Later that day, POAH spokesperson J.P. Hervis wrote an email back, CC’ing Chief Operating Officer Sevara Davis: “There’s absolutely no reason to write a full statement to this reporter because we know she’s going to be selective (in) what (she) includes in the story. My suggestion is for us to write one or two look forward highlights. And then standard operating procedure statement about the focus on our residents.”
A day later, on Aug. 26, Hervis sent an additional statement: “The safety, health, and quality of life of our residents remain our top priority. We take every concern raised by tenants seriously and are committed to addressing issues in the most timely and effective manner possible … We encourage all residents to continue reporting any concerns directly so that they can be promptly investigated and resolved. While we cannot comment on individual cases, please know that we remain dedicated to providing safe, well-maintained housing for all who call our communities home.”
‘He had congestion real bad’
After Shepard’s son, Da’Hovah Chosen Bishop, died on May 1, a member of Hamilton County Public Health’s Fetal & Infant Mortality Review visited her for an interview about what happened.
The investigator began telling Shepard what happened in Cleveland in the 1990s, after doctors documented a cluster of infant deaths that had unexplained lung bleeding. Investigators discovered that the infants lived in the same area of the city in homes with water damage and mold growth.
“They passed away from mold coming in their ventilation system, and they didn’t know where it was coming from; they were ruling it as SIDS,” Shepard said, recounting that conversation.
Hamilton County Health Department spokesperson Allison Babka said the mortality review team routinely interviews parents such as Shepard.
“Our team of investigators does connect with families going through a young loss to hear their stories and try to spot local patterns that can give us direction for preventing more deaths,” Babka wrote in an email. “Those sensitive conversations are with the parents themselves, and everything is anecdotal. A big thing to note is that even with the anecdotal information, there may be other issues at play in a death, such as environment, pre-existing health conditions, unsafe sleep, etc.”
The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office has not seen an unusual spike in infant deaths, said Chief Administrator Andrea Hatten, who noted the office does not track deaths by zip codes and does not investigate every death.
“I was taking him to Children’s (Hospital) to the ER. He had congestion real bad … he was always congested, and I was telling them that. He always had a cough. He was pooping out blood,” Shepard said about her infant son before he died.
Her son’s autopsy report listed him as a well-developed, well-nourished infant with no abnormalities. They noted two factors as possible contributors to his death: bedsharing and a gene mutation discovered during postmortem testing.
“I told Children’s about the mold. They had people contact me … and they said if I didn’t see the mold, like if I didn’t’ see the mold physically anywhere, that they couldn’t do nothing about it,” Shepard said.
A coroner’s report also described her daughter, Denayla Dream Bishop, as a well-developed, well-nourished infant with no abnormalities. The autopsy opinion noted bedsharing and pulmonary edema, or the buildup of excess fluid in the lungs, as possible factors.
WCPO reached out to Action Mold Pros in Newport, which performed the mold testing for Shepard’s former neighbor, Michelle Reynolds, on Back Street in July. A company spokesperson wrote this in an email:
“The Aspergillus levels are unusually high and indicate there is mold growing within the apartment (more than likely under it). … the variance between inside and outside is cause for concern. The Stachybotrys levels are mostly concerning because of the observable growth in the kitchen and upstairs door frame. It could be detrimental to an immunocompromised individual and should be remediated … The tests we've run should be sufficient for the landlords to take action.”
Soon after her infant son’s death in May, Shepard moved into a new POAH property a few blocks away at 1223 Republic Street, with her now 4-year-old daughter, Danayah. She fears her new building also has a mold problem.
“When you go inside these apartments … it smells like a musty smell,” Shepard said. “My daughter’s nose was bleeding, out of nowhere … I’ve been having a stuffy nose every time I’m in there.”
Shepard had professional mold testing done at her Republic Street building on Sept. 3, for both her unit and her cousin's unit a few doors down, where she lives with her young son, who suffers from asthma.
The airborne test results did not show elevated levels of mold in either unit. But results showed heavy fungal growth in a supply vent and high levels of Aspergillus/Penicillium mold in the building’s basement. Cincy Home Inspections and Sporecyte performed the testing.
Shepard and her cousin called the city for help.
City health inspector Damali Gaskin visited 1223 Republic on Sept. 8. She closed the complaint because she did not see wet floors in the basement or visible mold there or in the unit.
A tenant told Gaskin that she saw maintenance workers carrying up two big bags of water from the basement and leaving the door wide open to dry out.
But a POAH representative told the inspector, "There is no water and/or flood down there, and maint(enance) was not bringing up bags of water, so not sure where they are getting that information," according to Gaskin's report.
A POAH representative also said a tenant, "can be seen on camera with a news crew ... and wishes the tenant would stop stating the units have mold when in fact they do not," according to the inspector's report.
WCPO then reached out to the city for an explanation.
"Please be aware that the inspector’s notes include opinions and observations stated by both POAH and the tenants, and do not reflect the inspector’s views or the position of the city," a city spokesman wrote in an email. "Inspections like the one Health Inspector Gaskin conducted include visual assessments of potential environmental health risks—poor ventilation, rodents/vermin, etc. Inspectors do not scientifically test for mold or collect samples."
The city's Buildings & Inspections Department has not yet visited 1223 Republic.
‘Mold can be difficult’
There is very little research as to whether mold exposure causes infant death.
Cincinnati researchers found in 2012 that exposure to three types of mold, including Aspergillus and Penicillium, during infancy may have a direct link to childhood asthma.
“Mold can be difficult. It’s definitely an issue that we see in our community; it has to usually be caused by some sort of water infiltration, either a leaking roof, a leaking window, leaking pipes, something that has to cause dampness to allow the mold to grow,” DiNardo said. “We get a lot of complaints about mold.”
Legal Aid has a partnership with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital called Child Help. If a child has a health issue that doctors believe is caused by mold, they will refer the family for legal help, DiNardo said.
“There are two issues there. One is we have to make sure the tenants are reporting these problems either to the building department if there is an active leak, or a pipe leaking, or to the health department if they are seeing some sort of mold growth,” DiNardo said. “If, based on those orders being issued, the landlord won’t make repairs, then tenants can use the rent escrow process.”
The escrow process can help tenants force landlords to make repairs. A tenant gives the landlord 30 days written notice to make repairs. If they aren’t done, then the tenant can pay their monthly rent to the Hamilton County clerk of court, who holds it.
Rent money is not released to landlords until the repairs are made. Tenants can also seek the return of their rent if they incur damages or loss of use of their apartment, DiNardo said.
But many tenants are too afraid to go to court or complain about their landlord. They fear eviction, although it is illegal to retaliate against tenants who complain about housing conditions, DiNardo said.
“I felt bad for them because I was the messenger,” said Jill Porter, who worked as a POAH property manager in Cincinnati and oversaw five properties and nearly 250 units before quitting in April.
“They just didn’t care. You would say somebody is out of heat, and they’d say 'OK, just send them a heater.' … They weren’t even concerned,” Porter said. “A number of tenants in the winter did not have heat for two to three weeks at a time.”
If tenants complained about conditions, Porter said other POAH managers often tried to evict them.
“There are leaks, there are smoke detectors that don’t work. Lights hanging down. Mailboxes that are broken. And that causes a problem with people getting their mail stolen,” Porter said. “Then, when the hot water would go out, it would take them two to three weeks to get a part. I feel like they should have just replaced the water heater and put in an up-to-date water heater.”
One tenant didn’t have an oven for six months and came into the POAH office crying because it was the holiday season. Others didn’t have working intercoms in their buildings, which made it difficult for disabled or older tenants to screen visitors.
“They’d say 'Don’t believe the tenants, they’re lying,'” Porter said.
DiNardo believes part of the problem lies in POAH’s out-of-town owners and the lack of decision-making authority by the employees here. But he doesn’t want POAH to lose its properties.
“I think POAH has some work to do in this area. Although we definitely want to support POAH, we don’t want to lose this affordable housing,” DiNardo said. “Right now, we have a huge deficit of affordable housing in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, somewhere in the range of 25,000 to 30,000 units.”
He encouraged tenants who have complaints to call the city’s building or health departments or dial 311. He urged them to document every issue.
“The city’s Buildings & Inspections department will work with POAH to create a work plan to address violations. If POAH does not comply, the city will take appropriate action to ensure the health and safety of its residents,” according to city spokesperson Ben Breuninger.
Meanwhile, Shepard now has a lawyer.
