They patronize you when you talk to them about it. They talk to us like we're crazy.
Sixty-two-year-old Marissa Smith refuses to sleep in her Park Village apartment; it's infested with bedbugs. She's got pictures of boil-sized bites on her arm, and eight bedbugs that she caught in a plastic bag to prove their existence.
"They're coming out the walls. You cannot fight this by yourself," Smith said.
She's been sleeping on the couch at her mother's house for the past three weeks.
Smith is among dozens of residents in subsidized-housing complexes across Chattanooga asking site managers to treat their sites for bedbugs.
"They patronize you when you talk to them about it. They talk to us like we're crazy," Smith said.
At Whiteside Faith Manor, resident Hyram Thomas got so many bedbug bites that his spiritual group took up a donation to have his apartment exterminated. Thomas, who is blind, pays out-of-pocket every three months for routine treatments. He is one of 27 Whiteside Faith Manor residents who signed a petition this year concerning bedbugs.
Bonnie Deakins, director of environmental health at the Hamilton County Health Department, estimates she's had about six calls within the past year from people complaining about bedbugs at public housing sites. She advised those people to call the housing authority because the health department only oversees bedbugs in hotels. She received about 20 complaints of bedbugs at hotels, about half, she said, actually panned out.
Adair Darland, president of the Dogwood Manor resident council, said bedbugs can hit anywhere - upscale condos and hotels included. It has nothing to do with cleanliness. She's had bedbug bites in a hospital, she said.
She hosts weekly meetings at her elderly high-rise building to make people more aware of bedbugs, how to prevent them and how to get rid of them.
"A lot of problems stem from lack of information," Darland said. "It's not the building's fault. It's just reality. Bedbugs are epidemic throughout the country, and they don't come from filth. They're just everywhere."
People can reduce their chances of getting bedbugs by 70 percent by encasing their mattress and box spring with special material, she said.
Pest management professionals report that bedbug infestations continue to increase, not just in residential buildings but also in office buildings, day care centers and even movie theaters, according to pestworld.org.
That's no comfort to the residents in local subsidized-housing sites, who contend response from managers has been slow or nonexistent.
Andre Upshaw, who resides at Boynton Terrace Apartments, said he's thrown out his couch and sofa trying to rid his apartment of bedbugs. His apartment was heat treated, but the bugs didn't go away. He's been battling them for more than a year and has become so frustrated that he no longer sleeps there.
"They don't seem to really care that it's a problem," said Upshaw while extending his arm to show the bites.
At Whiteside, the situation prompted residents to solicit help from Legal Aid, a low- or no-cost legal service. The answering service for their contact, staff attorney Emily O'Donnell, said she is out of the office until Aug. 31.
Residents this year also reported bedbugs at Dogwood Manor and East Lake Courts.
Finding property managers willing to speak about the problem proved to be difficult.
Jamie Crutcher, property manager for Nika Management, which oversees Park Village Apartments, could not be reached for comment. Whiteside Faith Manor officials declined comment.
The Chattanooga Housing Authority, which provides low-income housing to local residents, also had not responded as of press time.
But one manager of an elderly site said residents should not be so quick to point fingers. She said she's spent $30,000 in the past year trying to rid her building of bedbugs.
"Everyone wants to blame management, but we don't bring them in. We don't go to the community kitchen and pick up items. We don't go and pick up a mattress that somebody gave us that was already full of bedbugs," said a local manager who asked not to be named.
Stronger pesticides such as DDT and chlordane once wiped out bedbugs. There were very few reports of infestations between World War II and the mid 1990s. But the chemicals came with their own set of problems, so they were banned. Bedbugs have been increasing since, according Billy Jackson, former branch manager for Bug Busters exterminators.
Residents have got to have some help, said Smith, who would like to sleep in her own home again.
She said she's tried spraying alcohol on her carpet and around her bed every morning and has thrown out sheets and pillows.
"It doesn't help because it's infested," Smith said. "You can't fight infestation by yourself."
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yput man@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.