Woman claims Calgary Housing mishandled bed bug case

Woman has an itch-ue with the city Watch: A woman says she was forced out of her city-owned apartment because of a bedbug infestation. Kathy Le has details.

Calgary — A woman was excited to move into her new home with her son in mid-November but she says it’s been one big headache in the weeks since due to bed bugs she says were found in her townhouse.

The residence is part of Calgary Housing, a City of Calgary owned corporation that provides safe and affordable housing to low income families.

The woman says she called the organization about bed bugs and an inspector came in on Nov. 29 to do some testing, however, they did not find anything.

“They told me they’d done all they could do and I was welcome to decline the place that I had already signed a lease at and that they weren’t going to do anything further,” she said.

The woman says she showed the inspector photos of bites all over her body, photos of the bed bugs and a doctor’s note confirming her bites were from bed bugs.

“I just felt like they didn’t care and they didn’t want to do anything more for me and I got to the point where I felt like me and my son really didn’t matter and us having nowhere to go during the holiday season didn’t seem important to them.”

She called Alberta Health Services who sent in an inspector on Dec. 3 and it was determined there was evidence of vermin or rodents in the home.

Greg Wilkes, housing services manager with Calgary Housing, says the organization take these cases very seriously and says there are protocols in place when a situation like this arises. Wilkes says they responded quickly to the initial complaint and that an inspector was scheduled to do a follow up on Dec. 6. Bed bugs were found on the second visit and a process was initiated to deal with the matter.

However, he acknowledges there might have been a miscommunication.

“Although we did follow our process I felt that we could’ve have more communication. When we bring tenants in we do want them to feel they have a safe environment, a clean environment and that we take everything very seriously,” said Wilkes. “The tenants (are) not happy and that’s not good. I don’t want that to happen and I will reach out to this tenant and have a chat with her.”

The woman maintains she was never told Calgary Housing was going to send in another inspector, which is why she called Alberta Health Services. She and her son moved out of the residence temporarily and have been renting a room from a friend.

Calgary Housing says treatment for the bed bugs will happen on Dec. 23 and Jan. 6.