Bed bugs infest senior living apartments in Desert Hot Springs
Senior citizens in Desert Hot Springs say they’re being eaten alive by bed bugs, which have infested the Linda Vista Senior Residences for months, biting residents in what they say are unhealthy living conditions.
“They’re everywhere. Everywhere. In books. It’s unnerving,” said resident Annie O’Donnell.
Some of the residents called us for help Tuesday after they were handed a 3 day notice from the apartment manager to “perform or quit,” clean house or move out.
“They’re giving us three days notice, if we don’t comply with this we will be evicted,” said resident Donna Dooley.
Residents also received a flyer saying on March 12 they can dump large, bulky infested furniture. They say the problem, it’s one day only and management has no plans to help them replace their items.
“Who’s going to buy us a new bed? We’re living pay check to pay check,” said Dooley.
“I think they should treat people fairly. They need to realize there are people here that are disabled and they cannot to this by themselves in three days. I think they need to realize we are on fixed incomes,” said O’Donnel.
On the flyers management offers to help residents move items and help clean their laundry. Dooley said pest control has sprayed before, but only in some apartments.
“The trouble is what they spray with doesn’t do a thing anyways,” said Dooley.
Community liaison, Vincent Sellecchia, said more needs to be done to provide a safer living environment.
“Put these people up in room, pay for their room. Take care of the problem, tent it up, make sure all of the fumes and everything are gone, it’s safe for them to come back in. Then let them come back into a clean place,” Sellecchia said.
The city said its aware and is working with Sellecchia to help solve the issues. We called the apartment manager, but haven’t heard back.
“They’ve got to take care of these senior citizens. They’ve got to do whatever they’ve got to do to get rid of these bed bugs. It’s not easy, but they’ve got to do it. It’s not a matter to ask citizens to keep their apartments clean at this point,” said Sellecchia.
