Two military families say they are being paid $31,500 combined and were moved into new housing after severe mold problems in their relatively new military homes in Aliamanu made them sick and ruined their furniture and other belongings.

More than 100 other families islandwide in homes built by the same developer have recently experienced some mold in their dwellings as well.

The military has struggled in the past with mold in some older homes retrofitted with central air conditioning, but now the problem may be cropping up in newly built homes.

"It (the mold) was terrible. It was growing on my walls and the floor and tile. It was so bad that they gave me three hours to get out," said 25-year-old Raquel Garcia, whose husband is a staff sergeant in the Army.

Garcia said she was put on steroids and takes medication for itching; her youngest child was vomiting, and her husband had breathing problems.

She said their health started to improve about a month after leaving the four-bedroom duplex on Plumeria Loop, which was built in 2009 by one of the biggest military housing developers on the island, Australia-based Lend Lease. The Garcias were the first tenants.

The concerns are the latest involving mold infestation in tropical Hawaii that have led to huge repair bills in some cases, while scientists admit that the actual effects of mold exposure aren’t well known.

The Hilton Hawaiian Village in 2002 closed off rooms and later said it was spending $55 million to fix mold problems in Kalia Tower.

Nicole Aguilar, who lived in the other half of the Garcias’ duplex, said her home, too, had extensive mold problems. Her four children experienced asthma problems when they never had symptoms before, and she has had throat and sinus problems.

Garcia said Island Palm Communities, the partnership between Lend Lease and the Army managing the Aliamanu homes, is paying her $18,500 for two sofa sets, two entertainment centers, a large cherry kitchen table and three bedroom sets ruined by mold.

Aguilar said she is receiving $13,000 for three mold-infested couches, a dining table, all of the families’ beds and all of their dressers.

"I just want everyone (in Aliamanu) to be aware of what to look for because no one knows," Garcia said. "I thought it was dust in the beginning and I just wiped it down, and we didn’t really actually know (how bad it was) until we started to get sick."

Garcia complained that Island Palm is "taking it case by case," adding, "They won’t notify the community. They won’t put out letters, they won’t say anything."

Island Palm is building and managing 5,388 new Army homes on Oahu and renovating 2,506 others as part of a $2.33 billion project over the initial 10-year development period and worth $5.35 billion over the 50-year management term.

Lend Lease is also building Air Force homes.

The property manager said in an emailed statement that it is "fully committed to the environmental health and safety of our residents."

Over the past nine months, after what it said were heavy rains in November and December, Island Palm said it experienced mold or mildew issues in 142 of the 3,441 homes it has constructed in Hawaii since 2005.

"We have received assurances from the professional engineers and architects that designed these homes that they have been designed in accordance with local building codes and best practices for Hawaii’s climate," Island Palm said.

Potential mold causes include humidity "intrusion" from running an air conditioner with the windows open, and Island Palm said it tries to educate military families about living in a tropical environment.

The developer was asked for, but did not provide, reimbursement totals for mold damage. Mitigation efforts, meanwhile, have included installing ultraviolet sanitizing lights in ductwork.

Because the mold seems to be occurring randomly under differing conditions, Island Palm said it has "engaged the services of a third-party expert to evaluate the root cause and provide their professional advice on what further action we should take."

A sea of new homes now spreads out across Aliamanu’s volcanic crater. When they moved in, military members raved about Corian countertops, central air, vaulted ceilings and white-fenced yards.

Aguilar, whose husband also is an Army staff sergeant, said she knows of at least one other family in the neighborhood that was moved out because of mold, and she’s aware of about five families who have experienced mold problems.

Cira Happel, also part of an Army family living in Aliamanu, said she, too, was the first to live in a new home when she and her husband moved into the neighborhood about two years ago.

She started to notice some serious mold growth in a downstairs storage closet.

"Ours was nowhere near what Raquel’s (Garcia) was like, but we were concerned a little more because I’m pregnant," Happel said.

Island Palm workers came out and "cut some holes" in the ceiling and applied an anti-microbial agent in the air-conditioning ducts and "cleaned everything off."

"As far as our house, I’m satisfied," Happel said. "I haven’t seen anything else."

Garcia said she started noticing the mold in her home on Plumeria Loop in 2010, less than a year after moving into what was then a new house.

In March, Island Palm moved the Garcias out, put the two adults and three children up in a two-bedroom apartment, "wiped stuff down pretty much" at their house, and put in a high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filter, Raquel Garcia said.

The mold returned, and in July, the family was moved to another house in Aliamanu.

Mold had permeated their furniture to the point Garcia said it couldn’t be cleaned.

A note from Capt. Carin Smith, a doctor at Tripler Army Medical Center, states that Garcia was seen for "extensive" mold exposure.

"She is a generally healthy young woman with no chronic medical problems who presented with acute symptoms from her mold exposure," Smith said in the note, which further states that, "Medically, she (Garcia) is required to remove herself from the exposure."

Aguilar, who lived next to the Garcias, one day saw a thick coating of mold on a toy box.

"It was disgusting, so I immediately called housing and told them I knew for sure I had a mold problem," she said. "They sent somebody out the next day."

Her family was moved to a different home about the same time as the Garcias.

She said her children now have asthma symptoms. Among the furniture she said she lost to mold growth was a rocker from her childhood.

She knows there are mold problems in Hawaii, "but this is off the scale," she said.

Both families say they were told a ventilation flap on the sides of their homes was not working and was letting in moisture.

The families said Island Palm went a step further in their new homes, installing ultraviolet lighting systems in ductwork to sanitize the air.

"We have responded to each mold issue promptly to ensure the mold is properly cleaned up and the family is protected," Island Palm said.

The state Health Department, which gets about 500 calls a year about mold in homes, businesses and public places, said mechanical ventilation systems can be a breeding ground for mold if they are not working properly.

Dr. Aparna Shah, an Oahu allergist and immunologist, said "mold can be a problem. Mold is there. The question is, does it cause the health problems?"

Dust mites and cockroaches are the two most common allergens here, Shah said.

"We do skin tests for mold, but we don’t find a lot of people with the mold allergy," she said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said molds have the potential to cause health problems, but research is ongoing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is "sufficient evidence" to link indoor mold exposure to respiratory problems.

There are no federal standards for airborne concentrations of mold or mold spores, meanwhile.

Aguilar is on the lookout now for mold in her new house, but hasn’t seen anything.

"We are kind of sick, so I never know," she said. "I’m just really unsure about everything."