While Destiny Salter is busy preparing her young children for their return to school, she is also hastily preparing to move out of her two-bedroom apartment at Vineyard View in Greenport — at the insistence of her landlord, Conifer Realty.
After having lived for almost four years with persistent leaky HVAC systems that have caused unresolved mold growth in her apartment, the single mom was suddenly told by Conifer that her family will have to move to the Shorewood Inn in Jamesport for at least three weeks while they remediate the problem.
“It’s straight up negligence,” Ms. Salter said. “[Conifer] was aware of this problem and neglected it for all this time — as a result, my daughter has developed asthma, and my son keeps breaking out in skin rashes.”
While venting her frustrations to a neighbor this summer, Ms. Salter learned that she was not alone in her struggles. In fact, several other tenants at Vineyard View have been experiencing almost identical issues: never-ending HVAC unit leaks, sickness due to mold exposure and a lack of response to their concerns from Conifer.
Additionally, in the last few weeks, most of these tenants have been given last-minute notice that they may be required to relocate for four to six weeks to hotels as far aways as Medford or Ronkonkoma — nearly 40 miles from where they work and their children go to school.
They were also told that Conifer can only relocate three tenants at a time, so for many, the timeline for moving — and any relief from living with toxic mold — is unclear.
The affected tenants, mostly mothers, were previously hesitant to speak out publicly, for fear losing their housing. But they are now banding together to hold Conifer Realty accountable and demand immediate action, better maintenance as well as community support to address these persistent problems.
A history of ‘red flags’
Conifer Realty, which owns and manages more than 15,000 multifamily apartment complexes in 210 communities across the Northeast, broke ground for the Vineyard View affordable housing complex in 2019 and completed the project in late 2020.
The “energy-efficient” complex, located on Country Road 48, just east of San Simeon by the Sound, has 50 units with a mix of one, two or three bedrooms, and a 2,649-square-foot community center.
Once the project was approved, Conifer offered a lottery for the affordable units, the first in Southold Town in 15 years. For many who applied, the complex represented a glimmer of hope and an enticing opportunity to continue to live in the North Fork neighborhood where they grew up.
But the launch of Vineyard View got off to a rocky start: Due to what Conifer admitted was an “administrative error,” more than 50 applicants were left out of the initial lottery drawing, leading to confusion, frustration and heartbreak. There were further complications with the “do-over” lottery that followed.
The dilemma eventually subsided and, from the outside, everything seemed to be running smoothly. However, once families began to settle into their new homes, challenges emerged.
For Ms. Salter, the problems began just after she moved into Vineyard View in November 2020, with a little water trickling from one of the wall-mounted HVAC units. That, she said, was followed by accumulating condensation that created a bubbling effect around the vents in her apartment.
When summer began and Ms. Salter needed to use the air conditioning, the moisture just got worse. Visible mold emerged, which started making her children sick, she said.
Ms. Salter made multiple complaints to management, but said she was often brushed aside or given various excuses for why her maintenance requests could not be addressed. Among these was management’s claim that vacant units needed to be fixed first, so new tenants could move in.
Following a recent local news story about similar issues at another Conifer-owned complex — Peconic Bay in Riverhead — tenants saw a change. In the past few weeks, Vineyard View residents have received multiple unexpected notices from Conifer, including an Aug.13 letter informing them of mandatory inspections of all apartments.
A mold specialist hired by Conifer reported significantly high levels of various mold strains in Ms. Salter’s apartment, including Aspergillus/Penicillium and Chaetomium, according to a report she shared with The Suffolk Times. Both strains are common mold types that can produce allergens and lead to health complications such as asthma.
“My daughter was completely healthy before we moved into this place, never had anything wrong and she’s a very active child,” Ms. Salter said. “My son has had eczema since he was born, but he only had two flare-ups a year, when the season changes. For the last year, my kid has had these weird rashes underneath his eyes and [on] his top lip, and it’s because of our environment we’re living in.”
Ten days after the mold inspection, she received a call from Conifer saying she needed to vacate her apartment by Aug. 27 — leaving her just four days to do so.
Persistent pattern
Like Ms. Salter, Porschia Poteet was one of the first Vineyard View tenants to take occupancy, in December 2020, and immediately experienced trouble with her HVAC units. Back then, she was told by Conifer’s maintenance that it was “the condensation line just dripping.”
In June 2022, she moved with her two children into a three-bedroom unit in the complex, where she faced the same problem, only worse. Both wall units in that apartment, one in the living area and one in her youngest child’s room, dripped constantly — even when not in use, she said.
Ms. Poteet said months went by with no help until finally the maintenance crew came to address the issue. She said half of her living room ceiling was taken out and an entire wall of sheet rock had to be stripped. For the first few months in the new apartment, a scaffold stood in her living room, she said.
In the two-plus years Ms. Poteet has lived in her current apartment, she has been able to utilize only two of its three bedrooms — and still pays her rent in full.
On top of her rent increasing, she has been covering the cost of damage to her belongings, paying for bug treatments because the exterminator has not been to her apartment in over four months, paying for hanging moisture bags that fill up rapidly with water and paying a significantly high electric bill due to the faulty HVAC system.
When she first moved into her current apartment, her regular electric bill was $120, she said. A month later, after all the issues began, it skyrocketed to $900.
“The HVAC unit on the wall does not work in the bedroom anymore. It’s pouring water down the wall into the rug — I’m terrified of what’s growing under the rug,” Ms. Poteet said.
Camille Limongelli moved into Vineyard View in mid-April 2023 with her wife and 6-year-old child. After missing out in the initial lottery, she said they stayed on the wait list for nearly three years before getting accepted.
“We saw red flags on the day we signed the lease and the day we moved in,” Ms. Limongelli said. “We kind of looked past some of the things that were going on in the beginning, but then over the summer we turned the air conditioning unit on — this is when the problems really started getting out of control.”
Ms. Limongelli first found mold in her son’s room, and it has since spread to other areas in her apartment. When she reported the mold to maintenance, she said the solution was minimal, “like surface band-aids on issues versus actually resolving them.”
She recalled maintenance workers painting bleach over the mold, a method the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not recommend as a routine practice.
Vineyard View tenants spoke about issues outside of their individual units as well, including concerns about safety and lack of monitoring at the complex.
Ms. Limongelli and other tenants said they would often call the emergency maintenance line for urgent assistance but found out that phone had been disconnected and the number changed without notification.
She and multiple tenants also confirmed that Vineyard View lost its on-site property management and maintenance crew several months ago.
In July, RiverheadLocal.com spoke with tenants at Peconic Bay in Riverhead who reported similar issues: pest infestations, unsanitary conditions, decreased management presence and no regular maintenance workers on site.
Once word circulated about the situation at Peconic Bay and several residents threatened to report what was happening at Vineyard View, Conifer Realty finally began acting, tenants said.
Frustrated by management’s pace of response, however, the tenants also turned to the Town of Southold for help.
At the beginning of August, they met with Supervisor Al Krupski and town officials to discuss what they have been going through since Vineyard View opened. Mr. Krupski confirmed in a phone interview that officials toured the grounds and apartment units and agreed many of the issues could have been easily addressed if there had been a qualified superintendent on site.
Southold Town has been in communication with Conifer Realty, which Mr. Krupski said has been responsive and is committed to addressing these big fixes. The supervisor added that Southold officials will continue to advocate for better living conditions for the residents of Vineyard View.
“There’s got to be some sort of assurance of the people being treated property and, in this case, it’s rental units, so you have to rely on the landlord to do the right thing,” Mr. Krupski said. “It’s just a lesson learned and hopefully they’ll make it right.”
A media liaison for Conifer Realty issued a statement to The Suffolk Times, saying that the company is “actively addressing concerns regarding mildew and condensation issues” and “inspecting every unit.”
Conifer also said they are hiring a full-time maintenance supervisor for the property and are actively searching for a full-time community manager.
“We offered our full commitment to respond to these issues expeditiously and to take additional steps to provide for an outstanding quality of life for our residents at Vineyard View and all of our properties,” the statement read.
Ms. Salter’s daughter has danced since she was 2 years old and is on a competition dance team, but since developing asthma, doing her favorite activity has become a struggle. Her mother said she stocks up on asthma inhalers, but her insurance only covers one at a time, so the brunt of the cost is coming out of her own pocket. She said buying extra creams to help with her son’s eczema has also become expensive. To combat the mold exposure in her home, Ms. Salter has also had to order her own high-efficiency particulate HEPA filters from Amazon.
Ms. Limongelli said she’s had to dip into her savings multiple times to pay her rent and expenses are just getting higher.
She said the added cost and stress are another example of the need to rethink the affordable housing model, both here on the North Fork and around the country. She added that these challenges can create poorer outcomes for children’s health and education, limiting opportunities for growth.
“It definitely feels like a further marginalization of an already marginalized group and vulnerable population,” Ms. Limongelli said. “It’s just perpetuating the cycle of poverty. It’s hard to understand how it’s so hard to get out, and Conifer certainly is not helping.”