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.

• Indianapolis Housing Authority vs. Bed Bugs
• Cincinnati Establishes Bed Bug Furniture Pick-Up Procedures and Hotline
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Housing Authority vs. Bed Bugs
• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success

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Advocacy group fights bed bug outbreak

VANCOUVER - Community advocacy group the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users VANDU is trying to fight a massive outbreak of bedbugs in that city’s Downtown Eastside by gutting infested rooms.

The group’s Anne Livingston says residents have had six weeks notice to decide what to do with their possesions.

After the rooms are gutted, crews move in to spray with powerful chemicals to kill the bed bugs.
Livingston says residents get to bring 60 pounds of clothing out of their apartments that will be laundered and returned to them.

Anne Livingston and VANDU were mentioned here in a post in March. Last summer, they got a $51,000 government grant to provide a round of 2 PCO treatments for bed bugs in two badly infested Downtown Eastside hotels. The residents also got replacement furniture and beds.

The city commissioned a study which said 1/2 of those rooms were bed bug free two months later.

Although the funding was probably was not enough treatment to achieve a higher success rate (which would likely require more PCO visits in many cases), the VANDU activisits definitely know what they’re doing. Back in March, we quoted an article in which Livingston said,

“You really need to create a system whereby you can knock on the door, get a room prepped, get the spray guys in and come back in 10 days and do it again,” said Livingston.

“And then, the real project is to not have people pulling bedbug-infested garbage out of the alley into another place. This creates constant reinfection. So that’s why it needs to be a neighbourhood campaign.”

Livingstone said bedbugs are a growing problem everywhere in Vancouver, and trying to get rid of them in the city’s poorest neighbourhood is money well spent.

Education, as we keep saying, is key–for residents of every treated building, I might add, whether it’s an SRO hotel, an expensive NYC co-op apartment building, a tenement, or a homeless shelter. (Remember, I live in NYC, where well-to-do professionals shop at bohemian flea markets, and yuppies take used furniture off the curb.)

I applaud the work of Livingston and the other folks at VANDU. I know with more funding and support, they will be able to continue to make a huge difference in peoples’ lives.

I hate that community activists like VANDU and the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation in Boston have to step in, since I think we need more infrastructure and government assistance helping people get good bed bug treatment and supplies they need (from XL ziplocs to furniture). Both of these groups have had government funding, which is great. I just think they probably need a lot more.

And is anyone in NYC or San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, or anywhere else doing similar work? We’d love to hear about it.

• Vancouver community activists urge city to pay for bed bug eradication
• Government money needed to help people pay for bed bug treatment
• 80% of Single Room Occupancy units in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are infested with bed bugs; also Rensselaer Polytechnic’s dorms
• Itchy the Bed Bug: an Olympic Mascot for Vancouver

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VANCOUVER - City councillors aren’t jumping at a chance to swap their homes with a group of women living in poverty in the squalid Downtown Eastside.

Eight of 10 city councillors who reflected on an eight-week housing challenge put forth by the Power of Women Group in a July 2 letter declined to participate.

From what I gather, the other two were unreachable.

What was the exact nature of the challenge?

In the detailed letter, the group challenged Mayor Sam Sullivan and each councillor to live on $610, sleep in a single-room occupancy residence and give up driving their cars.

“We believe that politicians far too frequently make declarations and decisions about ‘resolving’ poverty, particularly in the Downtown Eastside, without having any idea about the painful reality of those who live in the DTES,” they wrote.

Refusal or excuses weren’t acceptable, they said, saying this would be a confirmation “that there is absolutely no political will to eliminate poverty.”

The 40-member group is still waiting for a response from council, said spokeswoman Harsha Walia of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. “Nobody’s called us,” Walia said. “We’ve left messages but they’re not returning our calls.”

The idea of politicians living in low-income housing is not new. Mayor Jane Byrne did it in Chicago in 1981, when she briefly moved into the Cabrini Green housing project. Since a politician is hardly likely to have the same experience as people forced to live in such conditions indefinitely, it’s surprising that the politicians were unwilling to swap houses, and in many cases said even a night would be too long.

And why might that be, you’re wondering? Bed bugs. The Downtown Eastside has probably been mentioned more than any other single neighborhood in any city, in this blog.

Bedbugs — common in low-cost SROs — are a big deterrent, said COPE councillor David Cadman. “It’s a huge challenge to go down there and get bedbugs,” Cadman said. “It’s not something I’m going to do, nor am I going to bring that home.”

NPA councillor Kim Capri said the wording of the letter was hurtful. “The ultimatum at the end, quite frankly, hurt me,” she said. The fact that she doesn’t intend to take up the group’s challenge doesn’t mean she doesn’t care, Capri said: “I think this council deeply cares and moreover, I think this council gets it.”

Vision Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie said he would consider the challenge if he didn’t have three children to consider. “I’m not going to be taking the kids to the streets of our city for eight weeks . . . .” Louie said.

And NPA councillor Peter Ladner said he doesn’t see the point of spending one night — let alone eight weeks — living in the conditions outlined by the challenge.

“I’m not sure what it would prove,” Ladner said. “I’m going to take this as an invitation to go down and see what’s going on.”

NPA councillors B.C. Lee and Suzanne Anton declined the challenge too. Anton said she was “interested in doing a night, but I don’t think I’d be interested in spending a long time.”

Vision councillors Heather Deal and George Chow both declined as well. “I sympathize with the women, their frustration of having to live in the Third World condition that is some of the SROs . . . . They are crying out for help,” said Chow.

Sullivan declined because, he said, he’s already familiar with housing issues. “Before becoming mayor — and after my accident — I collected welfare and spent several years in a social housing co-op and a paraplegic lodge in Vancouver’s east end. This experience has stayed with me.”

To be fair to the councillors, I would not want to move into the Downtown Eastside either. Or any other place I thought might have bed bugs.

Some of these politicians quoted above appear to understand and take the plight of local residents seriously, and so perhaps they will continue to work towards alleviating those conditions. We have to remember that Vancouver appears to be doing more about its bed bugs than any other city. It is not yet enough, by any means, but in many ways, it’s still admirable.

Still, I think extending this invitation was a good way for the group to get the politicians to seriously consider the conditions their neighbors and constituents had to live under. Perhaps it will spur on further change.

• Vancouver official blames hanky-panky for bed bugs in nice areas
• Itchy the Bed Bug: an Olympic Mascot for Vancouver
• Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher has some progressive ideas about bed bugs
• And another ray of hope from Vancouver’s VANDU

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The truth is, if your home is attached to any other homes (whether it’s a high-rise, a three-family, or a single-family row (attached) house, this is probably not a good way to go about things. It can be unethical, it can mean you are liable for spreading bed bugs to others, and it can even mean your bed bugs do not go away, because others are unknowingly sending them to you. This FAQ explains this in a bit more detail.

If (you think) you’re the “source”

If you think you brought bed bugs to a new home, then you may not want to tell neighbors you have them. Remember that you may be wrong–though your old apartment was infested, it does not mean your new building isn’t also infested. If you live in an area that has a lot of bed bugs, then this is a distinct possibility.

Even if you’re fairly certain you brought them in, you may have already spread them to others. You should tell the landlord and neighbors about the bed bugs. All adjacent units (top, bottom, and on every side) must be inspected by a PCO who knows bed bugs.

If the building mis-managed your prior infestation, and now they’re back

If this is not your first time with bed bugs, but you got rid of them and they’re back, it might be because your building mishandled the problem, eliminating the bed bugs for a short time. You might think hiring your own PCO is the best way to go, now. If you intend to move out, and you think the building is mishandling things, then it’s true that hiring your own PCO may allow you to keep bed bugs at bay long enough to move without them (though we’d recommend a treatment at the other end, to help ensure this is the case). It’s worth remembering that moving is never fool-proof, and many people think they did everything to avoid bringing bed bugs, and still did.

But if you intend to stay in your home, it is not wise to try and treat the problem without involving the management, neighbors, co-op board, condo association, etc. If you eliminated bed bugs temporarily, but they’re back, they are coming from somewhere. It’s always possible you are reinfesting yourself (via your job as a flight attendant, say, or as manager of a homeless shelter). But it’s more likely someone else in the building has bed bugs and they are coming back to you. Treating on your own, without telling others, means this will undoubtedly keep happening.

With bed bugs, knowledge (education) is power!

It is not pleasant to have to tell neighbors, building management, or landlords that you have this situation, but chances are someone else has them too. They may not even know they have them, and you may have to educate the neighbors and/or management about how people can have bed bugs, be bitten, and not see or feel bites. They may not notice other evidence until an infestation is advanced.

If the situation is that the prior treatment was ineffective, you need to get others to understand this. It could have been done by a PCO that does not know how to treat bed bugs, or it could be that other infested tenants either did not get treatment at all, or did not fully cooperate with treatment, or did not follow up on the continued presence of bed bugs (remember, they may not even know they have them).

If you live in a rental situation, you can try discussing the recurrence with the landlord. Hopefully the landlord will get a good PCO in to inspect all adjacent units and treat properly, you may have to take further action, for example, in NYC you might call 311 to report the infestation to the Housing and Preservation Dept. (as per our FAQ on tenants and landlords). This would not likely be your first move, since it might antagonize the landlord to have a housing violation recorded, but it is a recourse if they really don’t take effective action.

If you’re in a co-op or condo, it may take some educating to get people to see the need for nipping this problem in the bud, and doing it right, and doing it right now. You might point to recent press about Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s building, which was infested for two years–one tenant had treatment, but the problem popped up in other units. If you can fill in the blanks for your neighbors on how easily this happens, they will probably see it’s likely you are not the only one, nor necessarily the “source.”

If you live in a single-family attached house, or row house

If you are in an attached single-family unit, and your infested neighbor does not notice their infestation or (gasp!) does not care. If they do not notice, then it might help for you and your PCO (maybe) to talk with the neighbor about how stealthy bed bugs can be. They probably don’t notice and certainly deserve to be warned.

Perhaps the most difficult situation is when it becomes apparent that the attached neighbor does not care. I think that it is truly rare for people to know and not care, truly rare. I have heard of it happening in at least one case where a neighbor had bed bugs crawling on them and obviously did not mind. If this truly is the case, it’s likely the person has other issues, and you might see if there are relatives or friends or visiting social workers who help the person (as is likely if mental illness or senility is present), who you could approach. Again, I think this scenario is very extreme and unlikely.

In the row house (attached house) scenario, your PCO may be able to drill some holes in the wall and strategically place a form of DE plus pyrethrin pesticides, so that bed bugs are less likely to cross from one unit to another (this is sometimes done in multi-unit buildings too).

The best scenario is to get the other infested residents to seek treatment. If you’ve been doing your research, share what you’ve learned. Remember how many misconceptions you had before you were unfortunately forced to learn more about bed bugs. Try to remain civil, and use information to convince others. Above all, be calm. Homeowners, co-op owners, landlords should all be concerned about property values, and it should not be hard to convince them that this problem needs swift and thorough treatment.

It is almost impossible to keep bed bugs away permanently if they are living in an attached unit, so as much as you’d like to just deal with this discreetly, it probably isn’t ethical or smart. You may spread the bugs, and they may also come back to you. With bed bugs, it’s best to disclose.

• Marty Markowitz’s building has bed bugs
• FAQ: My landlord hired a PCO who comes twice a month, and we still have bed bugs
• Bowling Green Towers: another infestation in elderly and disabled housing
• New Haven housing officials confused: why can’t they get rid of these bed bugs?

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Protesting residents who picketed Tuesday were all elderly women. So it’s another case of elderly, low-income tenants having to put up with bed bugs. And they’re stuck in those rooms all the time, since their building lobby, a former hangout, has lately been used as an office storage area.

Jennifer Berger, a lawyer with AARP, is trying to help the residents improve their living standards.

“The management is completely unresponsive to the needs of the most vulnerable residents in D.C.,” she said. “The conditions in the building are exacerbating the physical conditions of the tenants.”

Local activist Alex Padro had the right idea:

Padro said, “I’m confident if we get the [YWCA] board to meet in one of the bug-infested rooms, they’ll get the inspection team fast.”

• Bowling Green Towers: another infestation in elderly and disabled housing
• This is bad: bed bugs crawling everywhere. Video at 11.
• More from Cincinnati: senior housing complex
• Still more from Nashua, New Hampshire: fewer bed bugs at 23-25 Temple St.

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