The Boston Globe reported Wednesday on how record numbers of families are now being sheltered in motels.

In October 2007, 27 families were housed in Massachusetts motels. The number rose steeply in the last year, as the economy collapsed, many became unemployed, and foreclosures skyrocketed. The number of families sheltered in motels went from just over 100 in May 2008, to 751 families (including 1,000 children) in 39 motels as of June 2009.

This is necessary because there just aren’t enough places to rehouse people right now. But one effect is that people are living in places not equipped for cooking, bringing up children, or other aspects of daily life.

One of the problems people rehoused in motels often face, according to the article, is bed bugs:

The city’s health department is concerned about bedbugs, after complaints from residents and reports from school nurses that children from the [Cambridge Gateway Inn] motel appeared to have suffered bites. Sam Lipson, director of environmental health for the Cambridge Public Health Department, said officials worked with the motel in February to address the problems and have heard no new complaints. But hotel guests might be reluctant to complain for fear of being forced out, he added.

“They should feel confident that reporting the presence of bedbugs won’t put them at any risk,’’ Lipson said.

Of course, bed bugs are a problem now in many shelters as well as in permanent housing of every kind (from subsidized affordable units to fancy condos and mansions).

But the state does need to be accountable for keeping people safe and in appropriate housing.

And people living in any kind of housing should not have to worry they will be kicked out if they report the presence of bed bugs.

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There’s a little bed bug consciousness-raising going on in this post from Megan McArdle on her Atlantic.com blog, and even more in the active discussion which follows.

MacArdle writes:

Craigslist springs up to facilitate low cost transactions between individuals: good!

The market for used furniture booms, allowing people to furnish their houses more nicely/cheaply, while giving a little extra cash to those parting with unwanted furnishings: good!

The boom in used furnitures spreads bedbugs, leading to a quasi-epidemic in some areas: eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

McArdle suggests that due to used furniture alone, the more the economy bites, the more the bed bugs bite.

Well, bed bugs were doing just fine spreading before the recent market plunges. After all, they also get to spread nicely when we spend lots of money to travel and stay in hotels, hostels, and rental houses, ride on planes, trains and buses, or go to college and home again.

Still, I don’t doubt for a minute that the recession can indeed help bed bugs in so many ways (we go for secondhand furniture and other items, we can’t afford treatment or encasements, and so on). We have commented on the potential (and reported) spread of bed bugs via Craigslist, freecycle, and other methods before.

The comments thread is even more interesting than the post itself, IMHO. I was glad to see all of this happening in the mainstream blogosphere.

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Click here to listen to this brief news item on New York City Council’s Intro. 873 from WNYC news, New York.

The tone of the item is dominated by the Health Department’s reminder that bed bugs are only “a stressful and unpleasant nuisance,” and that the health department already has a page on its website about bed bugs, and that “the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development takes complaints, performs inspections and issues violation summonses when appropriate.”

Yes, and the city’s response to bed bugs so far has been so effective that bed bugs are (somehow, still) spreading at an alarming rate. I judge this only by the reports to HPD, since we don’t have a more complete set of data.

Some cities, like Cincinnati (well, okay — only Cincinnati), actually attempt to find out what percentage of their inhabitants have (or have had) bed bugs. The answer — in Cincinnati? 14.5%.

I would not be surprised if a similar percentage of New Yorkers had been afflicted with bed bugs.

But the way things are going, we will never know, because we are completely in denial about it and no one is asking the question and therefore we don’t have to deal with the answer.

As a general rule, I don’t wish bed bugs on anyone. Not even my worst enemy.

But I do wish a knowledge of what it is like to have bed bugs on those who feel they are merely “a stressful and unpleasant nuisance.” Lice are a stressful and unpleasant nuisance. Detected and treated, they usually do not trouble a person for more than a few days.

We regularly hear from people in New York, Cincinnati, London, Boston, Vancouver, and all points in-between who are getting bed bug treatment and yet are troubled by bed bugs for weeks and even months on end.

They lose a lot of sleep.
They suffer a lot of stress.
They use money — often thousands of dollars which should go to health insurance, or medications, or buying vegetables for their kids — to pay for treatment, endless rounds of laundry, plastic bags, and more treatment.
They get their belongings gassed with sulfuryl flouride.
They sometimes have to move.
They go to job interviews with red welts all over their faces and remain unemployed.
They stop having friends and family over, for fear others will become infested.
Those in multi-unit buildings who cannot afford to move may never get rid of the problem.

Think this causes very real psychological and physical health problems? You bet.
It is a lot worse than a nuisance.
The health effects of bed bugs are often a lot more serious than a bit of stress.

In this economy, in this expensive city, the Health Department is being a bit short-sighted not to see the potential of any problem that causes ongoing stress and saps one’s financial resources as a genuine health concern.

More on Intro. 873 here.

And read Renee’s response on New York vs. Bed Bugs. She did not receive the Health Dept.’s comments well either.
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This article from the Globe and Mail is about how Bay Street (Toronto’s financial district) and charities are calling on the government to provide a “recession relief fund” for agencies that help people. (The Bay Street crowd was behind the call because they realize that due to the fall in stock prices, they can’t keep up their normal level of charitable giving.)

What caught my eye were comments about the homeless — at a time when more people than ever will likely be seeking shelter:

John Andras, senior vice president of Research Capital, has been doing work on behalf of the homeless since 1993.

“I was talking with other advocates about three weeks ago about what we were seeing out on the street, and we were getting more and more concerned about the fact that funding levels appear to be dropping, the private sector is under extreme stress, both individually and through foundations and corporations, and that the governments have yet to announce their intentions.”

Homeless shelters are already so full there isn’t even time or space to fumigate for bedbugs, he said.

It’s a small comment, but a significant one: it’s not just the cost of bed bug treatment that we have to worry about, or the difficulty of getting effective treatment; already full homeless shelters also have a logistical problem in that they can’t shut down while they get treatment.

Bed bugs can strike anyone, they aren’t caused by poverty. But you can be sure that the recession is going to make it harder for many people and agencies to curb the spread. This means even more people suffering and wasting more of their funds on bed bugs.

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