April Cohen with her children, Ayva, 3 months, Mahalia, 2, and Riley Cohen, 8 who all sleep in the lounge due to the damp conditions of their Housing NZ flat. Riley, front, has repeated attacks of asthma.

​ April Cohen's baby has been sick for nearly all of her three months alive and she doesn't think the mould, the wet, and the cold is incidental.

Despite letters from experts saying major repairs are needed on her Strathmore Park, Wellington Housing New Zealand house, the state housing provider has only done patch-up work.

And she is one of the lucky ones. Knock on doors elsewhere in the Ngatiapa St flats and the tales are the same except little to no remediation work has been done.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF A damp bedroom at the front of the unit had recently been repainted to help address the moisture issues but traces of mould remain.

"I am one of many people living in these flats that have children and are living with constantly sick babies and our clothes being damp and turning mouldy," Cohen said.

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"No one should be living like this."

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF The complex in Strathmore Park, Wellington, is more than 50 years old with remediation work planned "in coming years", according to Housing NZ.

Another tenant, who didn't wish to be named, said over the past seven years her son had visited the hospital 35 times, suffering from severe eczema and asthma.

"We have mould in the rooms and no insulation ... These flats are not suitable for mums who have children," she said.

Cohen first raised the mould and damp issues in June when it was discovered that a pipe was leaking from the unit above. It was fixed, as was a broken extractor fan in the bathroom and a mould test was carried out. While patches of mould were detected, they were not black mould.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF When Stuff visited Cohen's home, parts of the carpet were damp to the touch, despite having been recently replaced.

New carpet was then installed and the walls repainted but Cohen said it had done little to fix the "underlying problems".

With doctors visits, sick days off from school and the entire family sleeping in the lounge to reduce $400 power bills the new normal for the family, Cohen felt out of options.

"I have contacted so many people to help us and have had letters of support from organisations to get me moved from my flat but Housing [NZ] are doing their best not to move me."

Housing NZ's Wellington regional manager Jackie Pivac said transferring tenants was an ongoing challenge with only 3 per cent of its Wellington housing stock currently vacant and a long waitlist of families in need.

"Nonetheless, if a tenant or their family's health and safety is at risk we will act swiftly to accommodate their needs,"

While the prompt fixes were appreciated by Cohen and her family, much of her carpet remained damp to the touch and there were still visible signs of mould.

"We are aware of ongoing issues at this building [and] have investigated some of the issues that could cause ongoing damp or mould issues such as checking the cladding and weather tightness and have not found an underlying issue with the building," Pivac said.

Cohen's social worker had written a letter, to be sent to Housing New Zealand, urging the organisation to move the family to a more suitable home as soon as possible.

"It is unhealthy to expect a family to be living in these conditions."

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