Inspections confirm presence of bedbugs in Buffalo public housing project. : Investigation station

Inspections confirm that many units in the Buffalo public housing complex are infested with these pests. Fumigations are planned, but not soon enough for some residents.

Log in to community room at LBJ Apartments warns of infestation. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.

Days after Investigative Post revealed a Bedbug infestation in LBJ senior apartmentsThe Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority has arranged for mandatory pest control inspections for each unit.

According to BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown, twenty-six of the building’s 206 apartments, including some vacant units, contained bed bugs.

He said bedbugs were also found in the community room, where Investigative Post saw Monday that every couch and chair had signs telling residents not to sit on them because they might have bedbugs. bed.

Brown said an extermination plan was currently underway.

“Twenty-six units will receive their first treatment within the next 10 days, and then the second treatment will follow two weeks after the first,” Brown said, adding that the authority would also conduct a full cockroach treatment during the month of May . .

Investigative Post on April 23 reported a plethora of complaints from LBJ residents, ranging from leaky ceilings and broken washing machines to cockroach and bedbug infestations.

The 10-story building, located between Main Street and Humboldt Parkway, is the BMHA’s largest senior development, with 70 percent elderly tenants, including many with disabilities. That makes bedbug infestations, among other problems, particularly troublesome, they said.

LBJ Apartments. Photo by Garrett Looker.

Residents said they were informed days after the Investigative Post article was published that an exterminator would be inspecting their apartments on May 2 and 3.

Although the exterminator has arrived, several residents who spoke to Investigative Post on Monday remain frustrated.

“They came in, looked around, left and said, ‘We’ll be back.’ No one has come back yet,” said tenant Lauren Dove. “I’m still getting angry. I still have bug bites all over my hands and back.

“Here’s what I don’t understand about Gillian Brown is that he said he knew (about the infestations). He knew two years ago that my dad had them, and I’ve been here almost 10 years.,said Erma Ecford, LBJ Apartments tenant representative. “If he was aware of it at the time, why didn’t he do anything?”

Tenant Ron Washington told the Investigative Post in a telephone interview Monday that he is currently staying at a friend’s house due to bedbug and cockroach infestations in his apartment.

“They just said they would keep in touch and let us know,” he said.

Brown said BMHA has been fighting bedbugs on housing authority properties for more than a decade and has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at LBJ.

He said the ongoing work at LBJ will be done in stages due to other improvements underway at the complex.

“We’re doing it gradually because of the ongoing construction because, remember, every unit in the building will get a new kitchen and a new bathroom,” Brown said.

Some residents say kitchen and bathroom renovations amplify the insect problem.

Dhyrall Hurdle has lived at the LBJ Apartments for eight years, and he said he tries to deal with the problems in his apartment as best he can, even though he is legally blind.

“I’m just spraying to try to solve this problem, but by doing the construction it just makes it worse,” he said.

“Every time I ask for maintenance, they tell you one thing, then turn around and do another. I’ve gotten to the point where if they come, they come and if they don’t come, then I still have to deal with it,” he said.

Several residents are taking matters into their own hands.

“Roaches just took over the apartment,” tenant Diana Mack said. “I’m tired of spending my money on three or four cans of Raid a month.”

While some tenants say they use their own resources, others said they have been advised not to treat their apartments for pests and to let professional exterminators take care of them instead.

“(The exterminator) told me not to use the sprays that I purchased and applied that night, that’s why I’m not here,” Washington said.

“I told (the exterminator) I had cockroaches in my kitchen and I started crying because he told me I couldn’t use spray,” said resident Jeannine Threet, who was the first to tell Investigative Post about bedbugs and cockroaches in her apartment last time. month.

As residents continue to wait for the exterminations, some said other issues have been resolved since Investigative Post last visited.

Dove said plumbing issues she first complained about four months ago were finally resolved. Ecford said her leaking bathtub was also repaired and some of the missing panels in the ceilings were replaced.

Other tenants say they still have plumbing problems and the laundry room has gotten worse.

“There are only two washers and one dryer that work,” said Donna Colbert, a substitute resident maintenance worker.

Many tenants have said they want to stay in their apartments, but they need the conditions to change. Threet said she didn’t want to leave the LBJ Apartments because she likes the other residents and appreciates the affordability, but she said she doesn’t know what else to do.

“If they continue, I’m moving out of here because I can’t take it anymore,” she said. “I don’t want to because it’s cheap, but I can’t do it anymore with the bugs and everything.”

published 30 seconds ago – May 7, 2024