The province has hired a tenant support worker to work with residents of a BC Housing apartment building in Prince George plagued by a bedbug infestation.
Brenda Lacey has lived at Victoria Towers at 1245 20th Ave. for 14 years and during that time her suite has been sprayed 10 times. The latest infestation had been so bad it’s forced her to throw away her mattress and box spring for a the second time.
“The bedbugs are everywhere, they can’t get rid of them,” said Lacey. “It’s just about once a year in my suite. I see them coming up in my bathtub. They come in under the wallboards. I take extra precautions to make sure I don’t get bedbugs because I’ve lost so much of my stuff."
Replacing the furniture has proven to be pointless, she said.
"My son just bought me a bunch of new furniture the last time and now I’m sleeping on the floor because I had to throw my bed out," she said. "He bought me a new couch and now they’re telling me I have to throw it out again. They told me that when they sprayed two months ago. I’m a pensioner. I’m 73 years old. I can’t afford to buy a new bed. That’s too much on a pension, I can’t do it.”
All the common areas of the building and laundry rooms on all of the floors have been sprayed with insecticide and several suites have been treated multiple times over the past two months.
Each time the pesticide is used it aggravates Lacey’s respiratory condition.
“I’m on oxygen and I have a hard time when they spray. Even when they do the hallways and that, I can taste it when I come in here,” said Lacey. “It has the same effect on me. I was sick for a week.”
Earlier this summer exterminator Mike Jaenicke, owner/operator of Interior Pest Control, told The Citizen he was unable to treat one Victoria Towers suite he referred to as “ground zero” because the apartment was littered with kitchen waste, kids toys and clothing which prevented him from applying the liquid pesticide.
Joyce Poitras, 74, lives on that floor and her suite became infested. Because bedbugs are small (about the size of a grain of rice) and can attach themselves to the hair or clothing of a human host unnoticed, Poitras said she can't spend time with her family in Prince George.
“I don’t go to visit my grandson and great-grandchildren because of the bedbug problem,” said Poitras. “He’s got a big house and what happens if the bedbugs go there because I brought them?"
It isn't just family visits that are on hold for her. "I don’t go to church anymore because I don’t want to take the bedbugs there," she said. "Nobody wants you around if you’ve got bedbugs. So I’m isolated now. I don’t have anywhere I can go until they deal with these bedbugs. That’s my frustration, and it doesn’t seem they’re doing it right. We have six apartments on the third floor and they (sprayed) my apartment but they didn’t do all the others on that floor.”
Poitras knows of wheelchair-bound residents who are unable to bag up clothing and move items away from apartment walls to prepare for an exterminator. She said they have no home care support to help them with those tasks.
“If a pest-control issue is identified, technicians are brought in to treat the affected area and tenants are provided with pre- and post-treatment instructions to assure this process is as effective as possible,” stated BC Housing in an email response to The Citizen.
“The building manager is working with the contractor to resolve all spraying in the units that are outstanding due to lack of access or preparation, and treatment of common areas continues. Tenants are provided with instructions on how to prepare or declutter their suites so that the pest control treatment can be successful.”
In the wake of the spraying, on Monday, Aug. 12, Canada Post resumed mail delivery to the building after service was temporarily suspended Aug. 1 due to what were called unsafe conditions for delivery agents due to the bedbugs.
During that time, tenants were required to go to the downtown Canada Post station on Fifth Avenue to collect their mail, an inconvenience for residents of the low-income BC Housing unit, some of whom have health and mobility challenges.
Meanwhile, a tenant support worker has been brought in to work with building management. Joy Reierson plans to visit with tenants regularly to provide updates on work the exterminator is conducting and will be there to address tenants' concerns about the chemical insecticides used to eradicate the bedbugs.
“(Reierson) will be focusing on providing support to tenants who require education around unit preparation for spraying, as needed,” stated BC Housing by email. “The tenant engagement worker is responsible for building trust, respect, and social ties between neighbours in buildings directly managed by BC Housing. They work to strengthen tenant engagement, build positive relationships among tenants, as well as connections with resources in the broader community.”
The tenants were introduced to Reierson, a former Northern Health mental health lifeskills worker, on Aug. 5 at an information session in the lobby.
Gina, an 11th-floor resident, welcomes having somebody with authority around to represent the concerns of Victoria Towers residents and has volunteered to be a tenant liaison.
Gina, who asked that her last name not be used, has a disease known as mast cell activation syndrome, an immune disorder that when triggered produces anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction that causes hives, swelling, low blood pressure and difficulty breathing.
“I react to so many different chemicals or odours and in the last two weeks I’ve been so sick with the brain fog and dizziness,” she said. “When they spray (insecticide) they don’t tell us, they don’t give us the appropriate notice. I’m pretty much homebound. I don’t know have any where to go, so I endure it. This is a good building and it could be so much nicer. There are people living in the building who don’t have skills in hygiene and don’t have any knowledge of how the bugs work. For the people who don’t there needs to be more support.”
Several Victoria Towers residents are upset with how the building’s managers have handled the infestation, citing a lack of cleaning in common areas. One fifth-floor resident, Terry Slater, said he was blamed for bringing the bugs into the building and was threatened with eviction and involved a lawyer and social worker to resolve the issue in a meeting with BC Housing staff.
According to BC Housing: “The health, safety and well-being of residents is of critical concern to BC Housing, and we take any report of staff harassment very seriously.
“Bullying and discrimination in our buildings is unacceptable and is not tolerated. We are committed to receiving, handling and resolving complaints in a consistent, objective, fair and timely manner. Tenants can send concerns through email to [email protected] or by phone: 604-439-4123, option 3.”
Eighth-floor resident Chris Peters suffers from multiple sclerosis triggered by chemical exposure and wants a copy of hazardous goods specification sheet that outlines the hazards of the pesticide being used. Reierson told him that information will be made available by the building manager.
“There’s a lot anger in this building right now,” said Peters. “I’ve got five people who are actually afraid to actually come forward; they’re afraid to talk because they think they’ll get evicted. Many of the people have mental health issues and many have physical health issues that need to be addressed and aren’t getting the healthcare they need, like home-care workers."
Peters is encouraged that the government agency has hired a tenant support worker. He’s been helping tenants deal with the issue for most of the summer, spreading diatomaceous earth, rolling up towels to stuff cracks under doors and supplying cans of bug killer.
"I’m tired of it, It feels like I’ve got this building on my back and I’m crawling over broken glass. I’m doing what I can, spraying into the walls where they lay their eggs," he said. “Bedbugs are the one thing you don’t sweep under the rug.”
