Greenbriar Apartments management tossed residents' furniture to evict vermin - News - Holland Sentinel
It seems a bed bug infestation at low-income senior apartments came to drastic measures last week when maintenance workers at the Greenbriar Apartments tossed the furniture of about a dozen residents over their balconies and into the snow.
Residents have complained about bed bugs in their apartments to local, state and federal agencies during the past several months.
Last week, the Greenbriar Apartments, 121 Waverly Road, was inspected by dogs trained to sniff out bed bugs.
Thursday evening about 6:30, a notice was slipped under Sue Coulters door. The bed bug-sniffing dogs had detected the parasites in her apartment and workers would be by the next day to throw out her furniture.
Since last summer, strips of white, sticky cardboard have been conspicuous in Coulters apartment, under the furniture, by the walls. Each monitor, given to her by management, captures any little creepy crawly that happens to crawl over it.
I told them they could treat my apartment, but I wasnt throwing out my furniture, Coulter said. We watched them throw furniture over the rails from these other poor peoples apartments. They were scared to say anything.
Larry Lawrence and his co-worker were the ones tossing furniture over the balconies of about a dozen apartments, he said. He felt his job was on the line, but regretted doing it. Until Friday, Lawrence was a maintenance worker at Greenbriar. He was fired when, he said, management learned he planned to file a complaint with HUD.
They could have gone about it a different way. These are human beings, they are the most vulnerable people in society and I feel they were taken advantage of, Lawrence said. We didnt just enter their homes without 24 hours notice. We entered and broke all their furniture. Thats borderline breaking and entering.
The first official complaint about bed bugs at Greenbriar low-income senior housing came in June of 2012. There have been four more since then. Bed bug infestations are not an issue over which the city of Holland has jurisdiction, said Sue Harder with the citys community and neighborhood services department.
Its still a problem they have to resolve, and thats why I referred them to mediation, Harder said.
Mediation is an alternative to court in which a trained and neutral third-party helps two sides work out a problem and something, Harder said, that probably should have happened six months ago.
The city accepts complaints and directs people to the proper channels. Harder could recall two other bed bug complaints at the now-shuttered Economy Inn and a 21st Street single family residence.
The first of five complaints the city received against Greenbriar was filed June 29, 2012, by someone saying the apartment manager wouldnt do anything about the infestation.
On Aug. 27, 2013, a second resident filed a bed bug complaint, and on Dec. 12, 2013, concerned friends of one resident filed a complaint, saying it was heat treated once, but nothing had been done since. The next day, the Ottawa County Health Department contacted the city, saying a tenants daughter had contacted them complaining that her mother had been charged for a heat treatment to kill the bugs, but was afraid to say anything.
A new manager was hired less than two months ago, according to Harder. Officials with the company did not return repeated calls for comment, but emailed this statement:
We have been working with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the city of Holland since last summer to address this issue of bedbugs at Greenbriar Apartments. We are following HUDs guidelines, working with our certified pest management company and communicating with the residents of Greenbriar to resolve the issue of the bedbug infestations.
An MSHDA spokeswoman said the agency has received complaints from Greenbriar residents and has asked the management company, Intrepid Professional Group, for a plan which will address not only the bed bug issue but also tackles the public and resident relations aspects of the situation.
Residents with concerns can call MSHDA at (517) 335-0190.
HUD recommends landlords have a plan in place for how to deal with an infestation. If this landlord is throwing out residents furniture, it is not adhering to its plan, said Brian Sullivan, public affairs supervisor with HUD.
The federal agency received complaints in the fall.
Furniture disposal is not part of the landlords plan as we understand it, Sullivan said.
Once bedbugs get into things like mattresses, theres no way to fully eradicate them, Sullivan said. A mattress can be encased in plastic covers to prevent new ones from entering and kill off the old ones, but bed bugs can remain dormant for a year.
Heat treatment can help kill the bugs, but it is costly at $1,000 per treatment, a fee HUD says was charged to residents, and something it requested the landlord to reimburse.
To the degree that tenants are not holding up their end of the bargain they could ultimately be charged, but not from the get-go, he said.
It was also his understanding that although an exterminator was contracted, treatment was not consistent enough to to eliminate the bed bugs.
Terry Nash is 70. COPD has reduced his lung capacity to 23 percent. When he got sick, his daughter, Kacy Nash, came to take care of him. While she slept on the couch that weekend, bed bugs were biting her legs.
He threw away his couch. They took out all material from the apartment and had it cleaned. Now he keeps his clothes one weeks worth in plastic storage tubs.
Next to go was the bed.
So my dad has no bed, no couch, Kacy Nash said. He cant afford new furniture and plans to sleep on an air mattress. She said he begged her not to say anything.
Theres so many people here who have nothing. They dont have anyone to stand up for them, she said.
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