Elderly NYCHA resident left to deal with water pouring through bathroom ceiling
MORRIS HEIGHTS, Bronx (WABC) -- An elderly woman living in a Bronx NYCHA building dealing with a leaky pipe has had her complaints fall on deaf ears for months.
85-year-old Marilyn Caesar has been dealing with water from her upstairs neighbor pouring through her bathroom ceiling
Caesar still gets around pretty well, but at her age, the collapsing ceiling could cost her her life.
"I'm worried about it every time I go in there to sit down, because I look up and see how it fell down any more," Marilyn said.
That's what worries her son too.
"I'm just worried about the ceiling falling in on my mom," her son Kevin said. "I came all the way from California to take care of my mom, not to get her head busted over a ceiling."
The ceiling they're talking about is in the bathroom of the apartment in NYCHA's Sedgwick Houses in Morris Heights.
The family has lived in the apartment for 42 years.
The leak started nearly 18 months ago and now the paint is warped, chipped and peeled away by the water from an unknown source.
They're not even sure that's the worst of it.
"Now it's, I think it's asbestos or something, and that's something I don't want to live with," Kevin said.
Residents told Eyewitness News about other problems, such as no hot water and long periods during the winter where there's no heat.
But the Caesar family has all of those problems, and they also have the possibility that their ceiling could collapse at any minute.
There is an appointment now to get it fixed, but there have been so many appointments.
"I've done all the paperwork, I've done all the calling and every time somebody comes and looks, they say it's a plumber's job," Kevin said.
"They always say a plumber has to come and the plumber ain't been here yet," Marilyn said.
A NYCHA spokesperson told Eyewitness News they were looking into the problems in Marilyn's apartment.
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