Bedbugs plague refugees (and landlords)
Posted by acorcoran on July 3, 2009
I think this is one of those chicken or egg stories—-you know, which came first? Refugees or bedbugs? Yesterday a couple of readers knew I would be interested in this AP story from Manchester, NH about a refugee apartment building infested with bedbugs.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — After all the officials took turns explaining a plan to end a bedbug infestation in an apartment building where mostly refugees live, Michel Ndayavugwi simply pointed to the young boy dozing in a chair in the back of the room.
“He’s sleeping because last night, he didn’t sleep,” Ndayavugwi said through an interpreter. “What can we do? Please, find for us good apartments and good housing … so that our children will not sleep in the classroom.”
Ndayavugwi lives at Langdon Mill, a four-story brick building that’s home to 16 families, most of them refugees from Somalia, Sudan and other African nations.
The building’s owner, tenants and various city agencies have spent years trying to tackle infestations. But ultimately it was two children who inspired a more aggressive plan to not only eliminate the infestation there but also to create a model for other landlords, tenants and communities around the state.
Read all about the plan which involves temporarily removing all the tenants (who, incidentally say they were promised decent housing), trashing all their furnishing and bedding and fumigating the building.
The Manchester story also mentions something we all know, that bedbugs had virtually been eradicated in most of the US until recent years.
Bedbugs – tiny flat insects that emerge from mattresses, sofas and sheets to feed on human blood at night – have made a comeback in recent years, invading hospitals, college dorms, hotels and apartment buildings around the country. The insects are not known to transmit any diseases, but their bites can cause infections and allergic reactions.
Coincidence? Back in January I told you about the “Mysterious case of the bedbug evictions” in Shelbyville, TN. In that story the apartment manager allegedly evicted Somali tenants if they had bedbug infested apartments. The Somalis claimed that anyone who complained was evicted. I never did hear what finally happened with that infested building, but rumor has it many of the Somalis have moved on elsewhere—to New Hampshire maybe?
I know a local landlord and know how difficult a time landlords are having economically, loaded down with every restriction under the sun, so why on earth would anyone take a chance renting to refugees? I guess legally they can’t refuse! This is not the first time Manchester has had landlord/refugee problems. Here is a post I wrote more than a year ago about similar problems in Nebraska and it has links to other landlord/refugee problems including the one in Manchester.
By the way, I think there is a method to the madness: ultimately the goal is to run private landlords out of business and nationalize housing—one more liberal fascist agenda item to destroy property rights—-the ultimate underpinning of capitalism.
Endnote: Notice we have an African “community organizer.” The New American Africans is apparently your typical Alinsky/Obama style community agitation group (see our whole category on Community Destabilization here).
Although I could find nothing on their financing or legal structure (no Guidestar listing, no IRS determination letter, no Form 990, no website even), your tax dollars are probably paying their salaries.
Honore Murenzi was visiting Langdon Mill in April as part of his work with New American Africans, a nonprofit group that helps the city’s refugees.
12 Responses to “Bedbugs plague refugees (and landlords)”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Lewiston’s got bedbugs…. « Refugee Resettlement Watch said
[...] the Lewiston story except for the 20 plus readers who came over to an old bedbug story we posted here. I’m assuming someone posted the link at the Sun [...]
What Causes Bed Bugs said
[...] Bedbugs Grand Hyatt Bedbugs – tiny flat fef insects that emerge from mattresses, sofas and sheets to feed on human blood at night – have made a comeback in recent years, invading hospitals, college dorms, hotels and apartment buildings around the country. [...]
iamevolved said
I don’t think I said that banning DDT was a huge mistake. I made no judgement on that at all. I was merely pointing out this idea as raised in the article. Please be careful when reading these things, Ann. This is just one more time when you have failed to thoroughly read and understand. The other day it was regarding refugees moving and whether or not resettlement agencies had to keep track of them. You totally misread my response to TonyLEE and snapped back at me to “make up my mind”. I do disagree with you, it would seem, regarding global warming. Cheers. I hope you are well.
iamevolved said
“I think this is one of those chicken or egg stories—-you know, which came first? Refugees or bedbugs?”
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/health/11patient.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Just a quick quote from an article I read today. “AFTER virtually disappearing for decades, bed bugs have made a comeback throughout the nation, with particularly bad infestations in densely populated apartment buildings. Encouraged in part by the banning of DDT, the insects have become so prevalent that the Environmental Protection Agency held a National Bed Bug Summit in April.”
This may offer one part of an answer to your quesiton on which came first. It would seem that the banning of DDT helped to promote the resurgance of bed bugs. Not necessarily refugees.
acorcoran said
You may be surprised to hear that I agree with you that banning DDT was a huge mistake. You are probably too young to remember but the debate over DDT and the rash decision to ban it was like the global warming hoax of today. It was used as an excuse to regulate people’s lives, global warming hysteria is just like that. More damaging than the bedbug population explosion, the DDT ban is responsible for probably millions of deaths around the world from malaria.
Tips And Information On citizen watch for sale | Citizen Watch Blog Store said
[...] Bedbugs plague refugees (and landlords) « Refugee Resettlement Watch [...]
nhlady said
Mars
They are doing the same thing in Manchester as they are in Portland. We never had a very long waiting list prior to their arrival. This is such a disaster for so many Manchester residents who have lived in Manchester their entire lives. What a financial drain on the American people.
acorcoran said
This is a comment sent by ‘nhlady’ that was obviously meant to be posted here, but instead went to a post on landlord problems in Nebraska.
Hi Ann
I’m glad you’re following this story. Until the refugees arrived we NEVER had bedbugs in any apartments (cockroaches yes but bedbugs – no). I was a landlord in Manchester for 15 years and my ex-husband has been a landlord there for 35 years. I’m not familiar with Langdon Mills but I suspect the apartments were just fine before the refugees’ arrival. Speaking from a first hand experience with Somali refugees, I can tell you that they lived in some of my ex-husband’s apartments and after three months the apartment was so infested with cockroaches and bedbugs that it took several attempts to defumigate the places. My 20 year old son works with his father on the apartments and he said the apartments were the filthiest mess he had ever seen. They even used closets as toilets and ate their food off the floor. Anyway, after only three months their lead levels were higher than any American child’s has been. The City of Manchester had to put them up (8 kids under the age of 10) in a hotel for 6 months, my ex-husband had a lien placed on his property for $30,000 even though their apartment was lead free. The lead was on the exterior of the building. Personally I think word got out that a Sudanese refugee was awarded almost $1 million in her lead poisoning case and these people wanted to cash in.
Some landlords have even had warrants out for their arrest by the EPA for not allowing the EPA entry to the apartments.
Now the Manchester taxpayers are also paying $4 million to teach English in their schools. The entire situation is a disaster and should never have happened. I read that Manchester received over 210 refugee children and over 200 adults in one summer. I even saw a 90 year old and her 72 year old daughter who arrived as refugees. There is a 4 year waiting list for Section 8 housing in Manchester as a result of the out-of-control mass immigration of refugees into Manchester. In fact, I have a disabled daughter who has been waiting for 2 years already and I am having to pay half of her rent because otherwise she would be homeless. She was told last month that she will have to wait another 2 years. Unfortunately, my husband has been unemployed for 6 months now and I am getting to the point where I can’t afford to help her.
I contacted Sen Judd Gregg who did try to help my daughter but the bureaucracy doesn’t allow any preference for disabled or elderly residents. In other words, the majority of people in Section 8 housing today aren’t even citizens. What a joke! I know of an elderly couple who had to sleep on their daughter’s sofa for several months before getting into housing (the woman had breast cancer). Once they moved in, the rest of the residents were all immigrants who told them they didn’t belong there because they were rich. It’s no wonder this country has no money. Of course we both expected this would be the outcome, didn’t we? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
mars said
the standard Somali trick to secure public housing is to declare themselves ” homeless” which bumps them to the top of most lists. Of course, most of them are not homeless at all, even though they may be staying with relatives (who hasn’t been there? but we didn’t run to the welfare office and declare ourselves homeless). It’s pretty much standard practice for Somali families , shortly after arrival, and DESPITE what housing arrangements have been agreed to by the sponsoring “relatives”, to hightail it to the local public assistance office and say they don’t have a place to live. They completely impacted the public housing services in Maine and elsewhere where the percentage of Somalis in public shelters was astronomically higher than any other group. It’s a scam that they are quite good at.
NH Tea Party said
There is nothing ‘tin foil’ about the author’s presumption. Eradication of private property is the goal of the global marxists and the progressives in this country have done a good job toward this end.
Click on the name for the NH Tea Party Coalition Website!
iamevolved said
“By the way, I think there is a method to the madness: ultimately the goal is to run private landlords out of business and nationalize housing—one more liberal fascist agenda item to destroy property rights—-the ultimate underpinning of capitalism.”
Do you wear a foil hat to keep aliens from reading your thoughts? Your conclusions are outlandish!
acorcoran said
Iamevolved, I know my conclusions are outlandish, but true. I spent years helping landowners, small farmers and small property owners keep government from taking their property. It was heartbreaking. During that time I did loads of research using FOIA etc. and found out who was behind the whole thing—-it really wasn’t government so much as very wealthy foundations and leftwing NGO’s—spawned in the 1950′s and ’60′s.
Now, imagine my surprise to see the same leftwing foundations and NGO’s behind the open borders movement.
Have you ever read any of the foundational documents on “community organizing?” Or, for that matter any Communist literature?
It really makes me sick to see what really amounts to liberal fascists/socialists, whatever you want to call them, using decent people who care about refugees and immigrants, or decent people concerned for the environment as foils for a re-making of our country—we are headed toward socialism, toward government control of all of us.
Just call me ‘foil hat’ if it makes you feel better!