Buildings in red completed radon remediation between 2000 and 2019.
Source: City of Portland
Radon was everywhere around Faison as a child.
Both his elementary school, Vernon, and his middle school, Whitaker, tested high
for the gas.
And eight private homeowners or landlords within 1,000 feet of the spot where
Faison slept have since installed radon removal systems, city data show.
It’s impossible to know how much radon Faison breathed in his childhood home.
The housing authority sold it in 2007. A subsequent owner recalled a radon test
indicating the house didn’t need repairs.
But in the house next door to Faison’s, a former owner found radiation in the
basement at twice the federal action level, according to documents she provided.
She later installed a removal system, just three steps away from where Faison’s
house stood until it was demolished this year.
In a statement, Home Forward con rmed the address where Faison lived was
public housing and said that “any time a person we serve is injured, ill or passes
away, we grieve for them and their family.”
“The organization is continually making improvements to the safety conditions of
the housing under its care,” the housing authority wrote.