Bed Bug Blog

The Fort Worth Housing Authority is closing Hunter Plaza because of a chronic problem with bedbugs, forcing residents of the 11-story downtown apartments for the elderly and disabled to find new homes.

Housing authority officials also cited needed utility improvements.

People started moving out March 22, and officials hope to relocate all 219 residents by May, said Alice Sykes, a housing authority spokeswoman. Most are receiving Section 8 housing vouchers to move into apartments.

"First and foremost, our concern is for the health and welfare of the residents," Sykes said. "We're letting them tell us where they want to go. We are helping them locate facilities with vacancies and providing them assistance."

Some residents said they're unhappy with the decision to close. "I feel like all along they had led us to believe this was a temporary relocation. Then we find out it looks permanent," said Mary Siering, a Hunter Plaza resident for four years. "It's not that easy for some of us to go find another place to live."

Sykes said officials have communicated openly with residents throughout the process.

Hunter Plaza sits at 605 W. First St. in a building that once housed the Fortune Arms Hotel.

Constructed in 1951, it was bought by the housing authority in 1972 and residents moved in two years later.

Today, it has 234 units and mental-health services on-site, according to the housing authority Web site.

Councilman Joel Burns, whose district includes Hunter Plaza, said he was aware that the closure would separate many longtime neighbors and friends.

However, "the housing authority has been careful and deliberate in taking every action possible to eliminate the problems at this facility," Burns said in a statement. "The housing authority has assured me that every resident will be placed in a new apartment in a respectful manner."

Uncertain future

Housing authority officials say they have tried to eradicate the bedbugs since they became aware of the problem last spring. Residents were furnished with mattress encasements and free laundry service, according to a housing authority report.

In May, exterminators were paid $27,000 to use a steam treatment on the entire building, the report said. In December, $90,000 was spent to replace carpet with tile. But the bugs remained.

In some cases, management observed bugs on residents' bodies, the report said.

Bedbugs are small, flat, brown and difficult to kill because they hide in the cracks and crevices of beds, box springs and bed frames. They are commonly found in hotels and shelters.

This year, housing authority officials contracted with a pest control company for fumigation services that had proved effective elsewhere, according to a statement. The process requires that the building be cleared and sealed.

"Due to the age of the building and the need to install all-new electrical, water and utility systems; FWHA has determined that this is the only feasible way to eliminate the problem," the statement said.



Author: Alex Branch

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bedbugs are forcing hundreds of people out of a downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bedbugs are forcing hundreds of people out of a downtown Fort Worth, Texas apartment complex.

The critters have infested Hunter Plaza, a complex owned by the Fort Worth Housing Authority that caters primarlily to elderly and disabled people. The housing authority is relocating all 219 residents to new homes and getting all of their belongings fumigated.

Doris Haywood, a social worker with the agency, said it did all it could to eliminate the bugs.

"They're annoying. They bite. They live off human blood (and) animal blood, and they have a long life expectancy, and they multiply pretty quickly," she said.

Haywood said the bedbug problem began last spring. The housing authority hired exterminators, got bed covers for every resident and even removed carpet throughout the building, but the bugs returned.

Resident Sherri Bass said she didn't realize there was a problem until she was contacted by the housing authority.

"'Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite' -- I thought that was just a saying," she said. "I didn't know there was really bugs."

Bass did not have bedbugs, but she saw what they did to a friend.

"He had them on his leg, and they looked like third-degree burns," she said.

While Bass was happy about the relocation and her new apartment, Mary Sierin, was not.

"I'm very disappointed at the decision to permanently relocate us," she said.

Sierin, a resident for four years, said she didn't want to leave, but she said the housing authority staff had been very helpful.

Haywood said she met several times with residents to this decision to keep them informed about everything that was going on inside their homes.

"A lot of them are excited. They are very apprehensive to leave here because they have been here many years," she said.

A spokesperson for the housing authority said it's too soon to tell what will happen to Hunter Plaza. Bedbugs can appear in any home.

They live in cracks and crevices such as mattress seams, furniture, baseboards and picture frames.

If you start to notice rows of bites when you wake up in the morning, contact an exterminator and make sure that person or company has experience with bedbugs.

After staying at a hotel, don't keep your luggage close to your bed at home and dry clean or wash and dry all of your clothes on hot.

Author:Taren Reed