The intellectually challenged woman who had been part of our lives for the past two years exists in a complicated, yet porous social safety net. Living semi-independently, she has access to a support worker about four hours a week who helps with everything from shopping to doctor appointments to hygiene to money management to just talking with her on the phone when she’s lonely.

But this is a bed bug website, so you know where I am headed, right?

Yes, she got bed bugs.

Mohan noted how devastating bed bugs were to this woman:

It’s hard to give quality care for someone who has the mental development of a six-year-old in just four hours a week. When her apartment was overrun with bedbugs, all her belongings were thrown out without proper explanation to her. She had to start all over again, including relocating.

This bed bug case may have been mismanaged. In most instances, throwing everything out is not a good idea. It is not necessary, costs the resident a lot of money and heartache, and doesn’t actually solve the problem. It also can help spread the bed bugs to surrounding neighbors. Most PCOs we know don’t tell people to throw everything away, but instead treat mattresses and furniture, direct people to encase their mattress, and give instructions on how to wash and dry clothing, so most or all belongings can be saved.

To throw away a disabled person’s things without even explaining it to her is simply horrible.

Besides the need for thoughtful and proper bed bug treatment, this heartbreaking story also reminds us of the need for better emergency social services for people with bed bugs.

It is not just people with intellectual challenges, as this woman, who might need extra help with preparing for bed bug treatment. The elderly and physically challenged also need help with prep (decluttering, obtaining and fitting mattress encasements, washing and storing belongings, etc.).

Four hours a week of assistance might be reasonable for normal circumstances, but this woman needed a lot more help during her bed bug infestation. With proper assistance, this infestation would not probably have been so devastating.

• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again
• Vancouver public education forum on bed bugs is a start, but probably not enough
• Dumpster-diving tenant evicted after Winnipeg apartment seriously infested with bed bugs
• bedbugs at Stanford University dorms (again)

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• bed bug news for 2007-11-11: Lexington, KY and Toronto, ON
• bed bugs in Toronto; Vancouver; Billings, MT,
• bed bug news for 2007-11-16
• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto

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The story above, along with the others I’ve included in these recent news round-ups, was very distressing to me: twenty women and children from a shelter, many of them in the shelter due to domestic abuse, have to relocate due to bed bugs. This is an example of the impact bed bugs can have on peoples’ lives. The story goes on to explain that it is hard to find another location to house these women and children, who need to remain together for support reasons, and (because some cases involve abuse) whose whereabouts must be kept secret for safety reasons.

The bed bug stories in the media keep on coming. In the last week, as you can see, I’ve started blogging some news stories with a mini-analysis or comment from me (as above), using the “daily blog posting” function at del.icio.us, which was recommended to me by bed bug blog veteran Windy City Mike. This is not meant to substitute for more in-depth coverage, but to deal with an ever-increasing volume of bed bug news.

As much as I hate not commenting in length on every important bed bug story I read, it’s been impossible to do so for some time now. I hope that these mini-analyses are helpful. As always, I welcome your comments and feedback.

• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Bed bug news round-up: South Jersey apartment complex; Charlotte, North Carolina Salvation Army shelter
• Gender, race, and being bitten by bed bugs
• Charlotte, NC Salvation Army Women’s Shelter has bed bugs again

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• bed bugs in Toronto; Vancouver; Billings, MT,
• bed bug news for 2007-11-09
• Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto
• bed bug news for 2007-11-16

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This story from WLWT.com (channel 5) on Thursday indicates that the city is surprised by the persistence of bed bugs. It focuses on Cincinnati resident Samuel Blackmon.

On Friday, Blackmon showed off his apartment to some guests: City Councilman Chris Monzel, Ohio Rep. Dale Mallory and News 5’s Michelle Hopkins.

“It’s horrible. It gives me the creeps. I get chills every time I think about it,” Mallory said.

“I’ve got to buy all new furniture. I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” Blackmon said.

In his bathtub, more dead bugs. Blackmon said they are falling from his ceiling.

Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority bosses said Blackmon’s apartment was treated a month ago.

“We are committed, and we have been successful in reducing the numbers dramatically of infestations,” director Donald Troendle said.

Troendle said his agency’s spent $500,000 to get rid of the bugs, but Blackmon’s apartment showed that it hadn’t worked.

Blackmon’s apartment “was treated a month ago.” But since he lives in a multi-unit building, a high-rise called Stanley Rowe with many infested units, treatment must be aggressive, persistent, and will probably take many weeks of follow-ups, spaced around 2 weeks apart. All infested units must be treated as aggressively. Frankly, in such circumstances, the whole building may need treatment if there really is to be an end to the problem.

The confusion and surprise the officials feel is not unusual. But what is unusual in Cincinnati, is that there does seem to be an awareness and recognition that more is needed:

“This is just totally unacceptable to be occuring in public housing,” Monzel said. “What we really need to do is look at attacking the problem, from inspections to cleaning to reinspections, to make sure these folks are living in places that are free of bedbugs.”

Yes.

“These are folks who have lived a good life. They don’t deserve to have the last years of their lives eaten by bedbugs,” Monzel said.

Monzel and Mallory said they did this inspection to bring more light to the bedbug problem in public housing.

They said they’re both working to get more money and resources to stamp out the problem.

One reader pointed out that Cincinnati officials were not listening closely enough to local entomologists and pest control experts. If that’s true, now would be a good time to do so. Was Mr. Blackmon’s apartment treated once, a month ago? Twice? I could have told Cincinnati officials that this would not be enough under the circumstances. Aren’t they working with a PCO who can tell them the same thing?

Mr. Blackmon’s situation is horrifying and tragic. But the fact that officials are persisting with trying to find a solution, is a positive thing. That the local media is reporting on the persistence of the problem “despite treatment” is good. What they need to be saying is that everyone with bed bugs will need persistent, aggressive, repeated treatments.

And no one is immune: Another recent story from WLWT news tells us those in “luxury” $1000-a-month rentals at Union Station Apartments in West Chester as just as much in need of help as those in public housing.

• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• Finally, somebody does something: Cincinnati’s new Bed Bug Remediation Commission
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success
• More from Cincinnati: senior housing complex

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His lease was terminated Sept. 27, about a month after he said he posted fliers alleging that bedbugs had invaded 11 apartments, including his own. A hearing on the eviction notice will take place Oct. 26 at Superior Court in Morristown.

Rutgers Village, in an Oct. 2 court filing, placed the bedbug blame squarely on Veghte.

The apartment complex alleged that Veghte, on or before Sept. 17, “either intentionally or through gross negligence, created an infestation condition within his apartment” that he initially failed to report. The landlord also alleged that Veghte refused to cooperate with extermination efforts.

How could Veghte have “intentionally” caused a bed bug infestation within his apartment? Does this mean he sought out bed bugs, brought them in, and infested his home?!?

How could he have “created” the infestation through “gross negligence”? While it is true that someone might have bed bugs for a time and not report them, thus allowing the problem to escalate, we know that different people react to bites in different ways, and bed bugs can be hard to find. Unless they are crawling over the walls all day, it seems like it would be nearly impossible to prove how long someone had them and known about it.

Failing to report the infestation promptly is another matter, and we really do not know what went on there.

Parsippany housing coordinator Rena Plaxe said she was contacted by Veghte several times but did not intervene in the dispute. Plaxe said it appeared that the landlord had acted reasonably.

“From what I understand, he found a bedbug. He put it in a Ziploc bag. He took it to the management office. They set up an extermination process for his apartment, but he’s been unable or unwilling to properly prepare the apartment. Therein lies the problem,” said Plaxe, adding that the landlord was able to do only “a cursory treatment” as a result.

It does sound as if “unable” to prepare is more likely than “unwilling” to prepare. Read on:

Veghte, a former truck driver who said he had not worked since 2002 due to three herniated disks and osteoarthritis in his neck and back, said he was unable to remove items from cabinets and closets as requested by the landlord to aid in extermination.

“I’m disabled. I asked them for help,” Veghte said.

What should disabled people do, if they ask landlords for help with prep and do not get it? Who can they, or the landlord, call?

And why would a landlord evict a disabled person who could not do their prep? Veghte claims there’s more to the story.

Rob Jennings reports for the Daily Record that Veghte feels he is being evicted because he told neighbors about the bed bugs via a flyer he distributed on August 25th. He received the eviction order on Sept. 27, and the building sent tenants a letter about bed bugs on October 10th. Regardless of anything else that happened, the building clearly did not warn Veghte’s fellow tenants about the possibility they were infested until six and a half weeks after Veghte distributed the flyers. They had to have known of this possibility since at least late September, at least two weeks before October 11, since the man was evicted then.

Assuming Veghte did distribute the flyers without notifying the landlord of his infestation directly, which was not a good idea, several weeks at most could be proven to have passed between his knowing about the infestation and his notifying the office as per Plaxe’s description.

His lease was terminated Sept. 27, about a month after he said he posted fliers alleging that bedbugs had invaded 11 apartments, including his own. A hearing on the eviction notice will take place Oct. 26 at Superior Court in Morristown.

Veghte’s being represented by Legal Aid.

This is not the first time someone has been evicted for not doing the prep required for treatment. Last December, multiple families (including one with a disabled son) were evicted from an Edmonton, Alberta building for not properly preparing for bed bug treatment. Read more about that here. In that case and this one, the evicted individuals claimed to be unable to complete all the steps of required preparation. These can vary depending on the PCO. In the Edmonton building, the tenants complained of not being able to move furniture and other items, and not having anywhere to move them to. As the article implies, they may not have fully understood the reasons for prep, or how to go about it.

In the current New Jersey case, Veghte is disabled. Although I understand that landlords do not feel they can do tenants’ prep, it simply is not acceptable that disabled persons, or for that matter, elderly people, busy single parents, or anyone else who has difficulty doing required preparations, should be evicted. Preparations can be time-consuming and demanding on one’s energy and physical abilities. If people need help, then there must be government agencies who will provide assistance in cases where people simply cannot do the physical labor, or do it quickly enough.

Make no mistake: tenants must report bed bugs promptly if they are aware of them (and whether Veghte did or not is uncertain), and prep needs to be completed properly before treatment. Not doing so puts neighbors as well as the property in jeopardy, and I am not supporting anyone who fails to do those things. However, people who need help with prep must get this help. We cannot expect disabled or elderly people, or those with other legitimate limitations, to simply find help somehow. As a society that does not evict people for being physically challenged, we simply have to provide help.

If this man is really being evicted for not doing prep, his eviction amounts to discrimination, and it’s just plain wrong.

Let this story be a warning to tenants: notify your landlord promptly, and in writing, the minute you suspect a bed bug infestation. People whose first instinct is to simply self-treat could conceivably be accused of not reporting an infestation. In NYC, landlords are often happy to try and evict you, since they can raise the rent for the next guy. Don’t give them any excuse for doing so.

And a warning to landlords: make sure your tenants understand how and why they need to prepare. Many good PCOs will give a talk at the building for tenants about the hows, the whys, and the wherefores. Education is key here. However, you have a responsibility too–to let tenants know of neighbors’ infestations. If you don’t, you may be sued, like this Chicago landlord. All’s fair in love and torts.

And a warning to the rest of the world: we must find ways to help people who cannot prepare for treatment.

Or there are soon going to be a lot more disabled people, elderly people, and parents of young children on the streets. What a shame.

• More from Edmonton bed bug evictions case
• Bedbug evictions: Edmonton tenants evicted because they did not prepare for spraying
• Still more from Nashua, New Hampshire: fewer bed bugs at 23-25 Temple St.
• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down

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Calvin Merritt’s problems at Hillrise Apartments are pretty simple.

“Mostly bugs, roaches and all that…”

The “all that” is bed bugs. Dead ones were easy to find under Calvin’s mattress, and piles of them behind the bed. When exterminators come in to spray here, their work’s easy to see, pesticide stains run down Calvin’s walls. Calvin pays 313 dollars a month for this one bedroom…what little furniture he had was mostly pitched, because it was infested.

Calvin Merritt, Resident: “I done lost everything got here, my couch, my other chairs, all the stuff I had was new, I had to get rid of all of that.”

At the other end of the hall, Jeanette Jessie doesn’t have any bedbugs, but she worries about them just the same.

Jeanette Jessie, Resident: “They just spread them from one end of the building to the other, this is crazy, get this place cleaned up, spray it at one time and get rid of this mess.”

It sounds a bit like the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Washington DC, Halcyon House in Denver, and Warren Towers in East Moline, Illinois. Elderly people, disabled people, and anyone in low-income housing is being dealt a raw deal when it comes to getting rid of bed bugs. Let’s face it, bed bugs are expensive to treat. They’re also a rather sudden problem no one was expecting and no one has budgeted for.

Bed bugs are difficult to treat, too. Traditional treatments require multiple pest control visits at short intervals. Residents must prepare for treatment, which can be a lengthy process and costly too (especially for those on a fixed income).

However, make no mistake: non-aggressive treatment (treating only some of the infested units, treating at too-long intervals, or not coming as many times as needed), waiting for tenants who might be unaware they have bed bugs to report them, and not providing assistance with preparation costs and physical labor–all of these reactions from landlords and housing managers mean that bed bugs will be around longer, spread into more units, and cost much more to get rid of.

It just does not make sense on any practical level to not be aggressive, thorough, and quick to treat bed bugs in a building you are responsible for. It is simply a display of ignorance about the nature of this beast.

We can’t entirely blame landlords for this ignorance; none of us were expecting bed bugs. But we need to educate the public about the signs of bed bugs, and we need to educate professionals in all walks of life (from those who provide housing, to hospitality services, to health care, education, and on and on) about the need for a bed bug protocol which includes both proactive searching for signs of bed bugs, and swift reactions to any bed bug signs or sightings.

Too many people seem to be hoping they’ll just go away. Good luck with that. In the meantime:

Channel 12 reports,

Officials from the Cincinnati Health Department tell us they’ll soon be taking a closer look at conditions in the apartments.

I love the Cincinnati Health Department. But you knew that.

• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success
• Cincinnati: “best weapon against bed bugs is … education”
• Cincinnati government discovers bed bugs are not easily treated, news at 11

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The Windsor-Essex County Housing Association, which owns John Fontaine’s building, is taking action. But not very swiftly, in this reader’s opinion.

Fontaine said the problem surfaced several months ago when management posted a noticed advising tenants to stay out of the disposal room where refuse and old furniture is put handled. He said he started noticing the odd insect in his apartment six weeks ago, but didn’t realize they were bed bugs until Labour Day weekend when he spoke to someone who told him they were in the building.

If the disposal room was off limits several months ago because of bed bugs (which I understand to be a reasonable bit of speculation), then the building was aware of the presence of bed bugs but did not warn residents. Fontaine reported his bed bugs on September 4th (the day after Labour Day) but was not told he was on a “spray list” until September 18th, two weeks later. What’s more, there was a presentation for residents on bed bugs and cockroaches two weeks ago, according to the article, implying that by the time Fontaine reported the problem, the building managers knew enough about the spread of bed bugs in their building to have planned a presentation about the insects.

The housing officials had this to say:

Kari Schofield, communications officer for the housing corporation, said Fontaine’s apartment would have been sprayed immediately had they known he was sleeping on the balcony.

“If we heard somebody was sleeping on a balcony for three weeks we would definitely be there,” Schofield said. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

It sounds like Schofield thinks that sleeping on a balcony is a real hardship. Why wouldn’t sleeping indoors with bed bugs prompt the swiftest possible service?
While the apology is refreshing, this statement tells me that the housing corporation officials simply don’t understand bed bugs.

Schofield said a presentation was made to tenants several weeks ago on bed bugs and cockroaches, but said it is a very difficult problem to get rid of. If a unit is sprayed and clean and someone with bed bugs walks into it, the problem re-occurs, she said. The corporation’s Glengarry units are also experiencing the problem, which is compounded by the fact some tenants are old, disabled or have mental health issues and may not be able to keep their units clean enough, or prepare them properly for complete spraying.

“I can totally understand how these tenants are getting frustrated,” Schofield said, adding that a task force has been formed to deal with the issue of infestation.

Fontaine said he works long days and was not aware that any such educational sessions were offered.

Schofield is correct that a mojor factor is preparation. Bed bugs are not attracted to dirty or cluttered spaces. But clutter allows them space to hide, and makes treatment tricky. Tenants who are old, or who have mental or physical disabilities, will have trouble with preparing for treatment. I firmly believe the government social service agencies need to provide assistance in this area.

Leaving aside those with physical and mental barriers to doing the prep work needed for treatment, it has to be said that still other tenants will simply not get the point of preparation or even the point of treatment, or may not want to bother. This is a really common problem–especially among those who are not allergic to bed bugs and don’t feel or see evidence of bites. Public education is key. And forums where tenants are invited are not going to do it, because some people won’t hear, some people won’t make it, and still others won’t think it’s “for them,” and won’t care. We need a public education campaign of advertisements to raise awareness about the bed bug epidemic, and the difficulties of detecting and fighting bed bugs. People need to learn how to avoid bed bugs and what not to do at the first sight of them.

Besides spraying, [Deb] Bennett [of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit] said, people must wash bedding and thoroughly vacuum crevasses in furniture and mattresses where the blood-sucking bed bugs like to hide out. Although more of a nuisance than anything else, their itchy bites can result in infection if the skin is broken during scratching, she said.

“When you have a lot of people, everybody has to practice that … or the problem does not go away.”

I hope Bennett also tells people to wash and dry (on hot) and seal in bags all clothing as well as bedding.

And I hope the 920 Ouellette apartments are going to get multiple treatments until the problem is gone. I am not a pest control operator, but I would venture a guess that a thoroughly infested building will need many treatments, spaced 2 weeks apart.

And let’s remember, it’s six weeks since the bites started, and Mr. Fontaine has not yet had his first treatment. And every time he’s bitten by an adult female, she can produce another set of eggs.

• from London
• Bowling Green Towers: residents organize to demand proper bed bug treatment in low-income building
• Spraying is just the beginning…
• 25 Grant Street in Denver, Colorado: bed bugs for two years

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It focuses on two stories: the St. Vincent De Paul Society, a social service agency, reports on the prevalence of bed bugs, how thoroughly they alter peoples’ lives, and how they’re unable to help people get the expensive treatments necessary:

“We actually do home visits to people who need assistance and find people who basically are going into apartments that are empty,” said the Society of St. Vincent DePaul’s executive director, Liz Carter. “It’s because people have bed bugs and they’ve just cleared out their apartment of all their upholstered furniture, sleeping on the floor. They don’t have a couch to sit on.”

The agency can’t afford the $400 to $1000 to professionally exterminate each client’s apartment.

While the reporter opens her story by quoting the local health department’s insistence that “there’s no real need to be concerned” about bed bugs,
it’s clear from Liz Carter’s perspective, people sleeping on their floors is a concern. Just because something does not (yet) spread a physical disease, does not mean people should have to live with it.

The City Health Department has gotten 200 complaints about bed bugs this year. (That tells me there have been many, many more bed bug cases–because we know most people do not call the health department about their bed bugs. Most call their landlord, or their pest control operator, or–gasp!–just try and deal with it themselves.) That’s enough to make Cincinnati take action. Bed bugs have been a topic in city hall, and the city is passing out flyers to alert people to the bed bug epidemic in that city. (They’re not just hiding a flyer on the Department of Health website, as NYC has done–meaning only those looking for bed bug information online come in contact with it).

“What we want to do is try to get the information out to as many citizens and residents as possible about the problem and how to combat it because it is becoming a big problem in many of our neighborhoods,” said council member, Chris Monzel.

The city is planning to kickoff a campaign to educate citizens about bed bugs.

“We’re going to do some training in schools. We’re going to do some flyers and pass out flyers,” said Dale Grigsby from the Cincinnati Health Department.

The health department says not to pick up used furniture off the sidewalk, even if it looks like it is in good condition.

I wish my (New York) city health department would tell people not to do that. Cincinnati is doing something, and I am glad about this–but the report from the St. Vincent folks tells me more needs to be done: funds need to be made available so that everyone can get the professional bed bug treatment needed to eradicate bed bugs from their homes.

Rich, middle-income, or poor: nobody should have to live like this.

• Urgent: if you’re in Cincinnati…
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success
• Cincinnati: “best weapon against bed bugs is … education”
• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline

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Keith Hamilton said that bedbugs have returned to some local social-service facilities and asked if the county can make money available to help smaller organization exterminate them. Hamilton said his employer, SERV Behavioral Health System Inc., must spend $200,000 to exterminate the insects at one facility after they were brought in by someone who stayed at another facility.

Hamilton said the extermination costs may be too much for smaller organizations. He noted that bedbugs can return after exterminations if they continue to live in other local facilities. Mair said county legal staff would review the county’s options.

That’s all they wrote. And you have to scroll right down under the article on fireworks to read it.

But it’s important news. Governments will have to assist both social service agencies–and, in my opinion, landlords and homeowners–because otherwise, bed bugs will continue to spread at an alarming rate.

And remember, an infested social service facility does not just spread bed bugs to other facilities (via clients who move around). It spreads them to workers and their families.

I am not sure if what kinds of facilities are included in SERV’s work, but consider this: when people who are homeless, or in need of a detox center (or in need of health care of other kinds) hear that the facilities are infested with bed bugs, they are less inclined to seek assistance there. This means, for example, more homeless people sleeping out, at greater physical danger to themselves, or people who need mental health or drug treatment services staying away from treatment. It hurts them, and it affects everyone else.

Remember, with bed bugs, we’re living in a matrix, a web. We’re all interconnected and the bed bugs are going to show just how closely, by moving from one place to another. If we don’t make sure everyone can pay to have their bed bugs eradicated, more and more of us will end up becoming infested.

• Brown student wants to provide free bed bug treatment to those who can’t pay
• Tampa Bay mental health facility closed for bed bug treatment
• Nova Scotia home help nurses stop visiting client with bed bugs
• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down

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