HOBOKEN — The head of Hoboken’s federally funded public housing projects said Tuesday that a potential bed bug problem in a senior citizen/disabled building at 221 Jackson St. has been taken care of.
Hoboken Housing Authority Executive Director Carmelo Garcia said that a bed bug problem cropped up in one unit in the building. He said that the unit was treated twice and then a third time for good measure, and that the unit on top, the unit below, and all neighboring units were treated.
He said that on Thursday, March 8, the city’s Health Department inspected the unit and found it clear of the bugs.
A local resident wrote a letter to the Reporter and several other media outlets this week complaining that the senior citizen in the unit was not treated fairly, and was blamed for the incident, causing severe health problems.
The resident said that the bedbugs probably came from within the building and not from the tenant’s furniture, as the tenant has no new furniture that would have suddenly brought bedbugs. She also said that Garcia should have granted the tenant an apartment transfer.
Garcia said that no one was blaming the tenant. He also said that the tenant’s family was told the rules and procedures for a transfer.
Garcia said that often, tenants who find bedbugs don’t tell officials right away because they are ashamed. He said that bedbugs multiply quickly, so anyone with a problem should report it right away.
Bedbugs can travel through a person’s clothes, furniture, or matress, and are difficult to eliminate, requiring professional extermination. They also multiply quickly.
Garcia said the HHA picks up the cost of the treatment, not the tenant.
The author of the letter was not moved by the HHA’s response to the problem. She wrote in her letter, “There is no new furniture in this tenant’s apartment. The only outside activity she does on a daily basis is taking the elevator downstairs to get her mail, ashes her clothes in the downstairs laundry room and sits in the community room for certain gatherings. Fellow senior citizens in this building has stated that bed bugs can be seen in the hallways and sometimes in the elevators.”