A landlord’s neglect and Philly’s lax oversight left a 12-year-old girl dead, mom alleges

By the night Essie Campbell rushed her daughter Jah’nae to the hospital — the 12-year-old gasping for air — Campbell had tried everything she could think of to get help.

For at least two years she lodged complaints and put in repair slips with the property managers who represented the nonprofit landlord of her aging West Philly affordable-housing complex. She pleaded with them to address the leak that had caused her ceiling to collapse three times, to pull up the musty carpet, and to address the mold climbing the walls from the resulting water penetration.

She sent texts and wrote letters and, she said, complained to the city that her unit was uninhabitable. She even had gotten notes from her doctor, warning of the urgency because Campbell and all six of her children had asthma — worsened by the mold and mildew.

None of it yielded a response.

On March 8, around 1 a.m., Campbell was awakened by the noise of someone rummaging in the bathroom. She found her second-oldest daughter, looking for medicine.

“My chest is tight,” Jah’nae told her. Bleary-eyed, Campbell sat with Jah’nae as she did a nebulizer treatment, then a second one. Jah’nae still couldn’t breathe.

Campbell rushed her daughter to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, running every red light. “Help my baby,” she pleaded with the medical staff.

But when a doctor returned to speak with Campbell, the news was grim: “Her heart stopped.”

Now, Campbell is suing her nonprofit landlord, HELP USA, and its property manager, saying they caused Jah’nae’s death. She blames the toxic conditions in an apartment, near 49th Street and Wyalusing Avenue, that she couldn’t afford to leave.

In Philadelphia, there’s little to ensure that renters are living in habitable conditions. Landlords must provide a certificate of rental suitability — but they are permitted to self-certify, meaning no third party routinely inspects the property.

A 2021 Pew analysis found that only 7% of Philly apartments get inspected each year. In contrast, many other cities have stepped up code enforcement by requiring routine inspections, sometimes using outside inspectors to increase capacity, or implementing reforms such as requiring inspections across a landlord’s holdings if a significant violation is found in one unit.

» READ MORE: Philly inspects only 7% of rental units each year, leaving tenants vulnerable

In Philadelphia, inspections are complaint-driven. Campbell insists that she did complain to the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections but said inspectors never visited her apartment.

Shemeka Moore, a spokesperson for L&I, acknowledged that the agency had received four maintenance complaints related to the complex over the last two years. However, the complaints were all “unit specific,” meaning inspectors were dispatched to only a handful of the nearly 100 apartments there.

Although Moore maintained that all four complaints had been investigated, she said that two of those investigations were still ongoing and that none of the complaints was substantiated because inspectors “were not able to gain access to the property.”

As a result, L&I has not issued a single code violation to the complex over that time, even though the apartments’ fire alarm certification expired several months ago. The last enforcement action there came in October 2022, when inspectors marked a violation related to a leaky roof resolved, city records show.

Campbell says her apartment developed new structural problems that L&I would likely have flagged had inspectors visited her unit — like the collapsed ceiling. The agency is not required to inspect for other issues, like mold.

For Campbell, the situation has left her feeling alone and helpless.

“Sometimes I’m just so scared about being a mom now,” she said. “I want to always protect my kids. And I just felt like that was out of my control. I couldn’t protect my baby.”

The complex where Campbell lives operates through a convoluted management chain.

A private property manager, Arco, runs day-to-day operations through a contract with HELP USA, a New York City-based nonprofit with ties to the family of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. That nonprofit, in turn, has since 1997 held a ground lease with a second nonprofit, a subsidiary of Community Council Health Systems (CCHS).

CCHS, which owns and is headquartered at the site, has been in duress since former executives pilfered from its bank accounts.

» READ MORE: Nonprofit executives misspent millions with no accountability

Earlier this year, an Inquirer investigation detailed the missing millions — frittered away, according to auditors, on questionable real estate deals, purchases of artwork, and more than $84,000 in 76ers tickets, among other things. And, all the while, the nonprofit’s services, like providing mental health treatment, suffered as the $16 million-a-year organization hemorrhaged money.

HELP USA, which last year reported $120 million in revenue, has had its own controversies — some centering on a now-closed homeless shelter on Wards Island in New York, where residents reportedly complained of frequent heat outages and where a person was trapped in an elevator for four days.

Despite the turmoil within both nonprofits, the organizations doubled down on their operations at Campbell’s complex. Earlier this year, they signed a joint agreement extending HELP USA’s ground lease for a century.

A HELP USA spokesperson refused to comment.

A lawyer for Community Council said the nonprofit “does not have any obligations with respect to the maintenance or monitoring of the property, and the rent is nominal.”

However, in 2022, the related nonprofit reported $5.7 million in rental income. An attorney for the nonprofit described this as an “error” by a prior accountant and said the organization would submit an amended disclosure.

Campbell’s lawyer, Jordan Strokovsky, contended that HELP USA’s management of the property led directly to Jah’nae’s death. “For years, HELP USA didn’t care about the health and safety of Essie Campbell and her kids, and now a 12-year-old girl is dead because of it.”

Campbell’s concerns about the apartment started as soon as she arrived in 2016.

She described a bait-and-switch, in which the property manager showed her one unit — then rented her a different one, in dire condition.

Jah’nae, her second-oldest, tried to help Campbell make the best of the situation. Campbell used to call her daughter “Mom,” because Jah’nae loved to cook elaborate meals, and to take care of her siblings.

“She was my backbone,” Campbell said.

The family’s asthma worsened in the apartment. As Campbell noticed more leaks, she began peppering property managers with complaints.

» READ MORE: A notorious landlord neglected tenants for years. Authorities paid little attention until he committed voter fraud.

She watched water stains spreading across her ceiling for months. In 2022, the ceiling collapsed into her dining room. She submitted requests for repairs, but the hole remained.

“I have severe asthmatic children that get sick and need/require multiple hospital visits,” she wrote in a May 2023 complaint, attaching a doctor’s note requesting the removal of the carpet.

In July, she texted a property manager that she was at the emergency room with four of her children. She got no response.

In September, she wrote a letter to the property manager, pleading for help and noting that the hospital visits were getting more frequent.

To Campbell’s surprise, in February 2024, a property manager notified her that a carpet-cleaning company was being dispatched to her unit.

The workers never arrived.

On March 7, Campbell wrote another letter — the last one while Jah’nae was still alive.

“I was trying to be her voice and let them know, ‘My baby is getting sick,’” Campbell said.

At the nonprofit Community Legal Services, housing attorneys devote extensive resources to fighting evictions and keeping people in their homes — but there’s less recourse to address chronic maintenance issues.

CLS housing attorney Osarugue Grace Osa-Edoh said a recent survey by the organization found that the vast majority of renters were suffering adverse health effects from their housing conditions. One in four cited mold contamination as the top maintenance concern.

“Habitability issues, including mold, lead, pest infestation, significant leaks, plumbing, and electrical problems, can destabilize housing for tenants, and can cause serious and pervasive health problems,” she said.

» READ MORE: Empire of Neglect: How the Puretz family cashed in while poor renters paid the price

After the night Campbell rushed her daughter to the hospital, Jah’nae was on life support for two weeks — first at Penn Presbyterian and then at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

After Jah’nae’s death, she said, the landlord finally moved her family to a new, nicer unit.

She’d like to move away — but fears trading a dangerous apartment for a dangerous neighborhood.

But staying so close to the apartment that she believes killed her daughter feels to her as if she’s reliving the nightmare daily.

Campbell said that no matter where they live, Jah’nae’s absence would be felt.

“I’m used to a family of seven: me and my children. That’s all I have. Now, when I make dinner, I’m making six plates and yelling, ‘Who didn’t get their plate yet?’ … And I have to remember she’s not here,” Campbell said. “I was used to taking six children to school, making six doctor’s appointments. I’m losing my mind trying to figure out, ‘Who am I missing? Who am I leaving out?’”