Mold, mushrooms: Durham single mother says her rental home is unlivable

Tia Hoyt is a survivor of domestic violence, and is renting the home through a voucher program called Shelter Plus.

"I'm just tired. You can't even cook in there. It stinks," she said. "The water is all up under your feet."

She and her children have been in and out of shelters, and Hoyt doesn't have a job or car.

"I'm trying not to lose it," she said. "My kids can't afford for me to lose it."

The mother says that the DHA should not allow her landlord to be a recipient of their vouchers. The home is inspected each January, and each year it fails inspection, she said.

"Every time something breaks in here, due to her negligence, her not fixing it, she takes the money from our security deposit," Hoyt said. "So right now I don’t even have a security deposit to try to leave here."

Over the years, Hoyt told WRAL News, she has had issues with her hot water, water bubbling up from underneath the kitchen floor, mold, a broken stove and a broken refrigerator. And the issues keep piling up.

"It's been over a week, and water is still in our house," she said. Two of her children have asthma, and she says they should not have to live like this.

Satinder Dayal, her landlord, said that Hoyt has not told her about any issues recently, and says anytime she does tell her, she fixes it immediately.

"I consider her like my daughter," Dayal said. "Whenever she has complained, anything, it has always been taken care of right away."

But Hoyt says that those fixes are only temporary.

DHA CEO Anthony Scott said that they have the power to remove a landlord if there is a "chronic failure" to keep the unit safe. If the landlord is taking advantage of the tenant, they can be banned.

"It's not right," she said. "We have nobody here. I'm not from here. I don't have no family or friends here. It's just me or my kids."

Now that Scott is aware of issues with this home, he said that DHA will re-inspect the property.

Hoyt suffers from depression and says that the issues in her home are becoming "too much."

"I'm about ready to just give up," she said.

She said that on Monday night, she wasn't able to cook anything for her children because of the issues. In desperation, she reached out to two friends on Facebook to help out with a meal. They didn't reply.

Hoyt isn't able to move, because she spent all her money on the security deposit. The DHA does not cover security deposits, and she needs another deposit to switch homes within the voucher program.

"I have zero income," she said. "All I get is food stamps and Medicaid."