‘Special delivery’: Residents drop off dead roaches to building management highlighting pest issue

Tenants of a London Middlesex Community Housing building are concerned about bug infestations – and with good reason. CTV's Reta Ismail has the details.

Tenants living inside a London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) building are calling out management for what they say are degrading conditions.

“Pest control is a major issue here, as well as maintenance,” said Sharon Villeneuve, 85 Walnut ACORN tenant Union leader.

A bag of dead cockroaches was displayed at a rally held outside 85 Walnut Street, where residents say the building is infested with all sorts of pests, including mice, bed bugs and roaches.

“The last two years, I’ve been living with mice above my stove and my vent, I get up in the morning and there’s feces all over my stove,” said 85 Walnut Street tenant Linda Thompson.

LMCH says they are working with certified pest control providers; however, they recognize the treatment cycles are taking longer than expected.

“A bit of nuance because it’s sort of different for every tenant,” explained Matt Senechal, LMCH Communications Manager. “Sometimes it requires different prep levels, but for the most part, we can do minimal prep with safer products to, you know, get the tenant back in their unit faster.”

Tuesday’s rally was organized by ACORN, a tenant rights group that says tenants at the building have been raising concerns about pests and other issues for many years.

LMCH says they are making significant progress, noting the infestation rate dropped from 33 per cent at the end of last year, to 22 per cent as of today.

LMCH added that they make efforts to take preventative measures, however, some units go unreported, or there are ‘source units’ that have potential to reinfest previously cleaned units.

“Upgrades and pest control treatment can significantly cost more especially if we are having to help with prep and everything like that. It doesn’t impact the tenant because rents are set, what it does is it affects our operational dollars,” explained Senechal.

After the rally, the protesters made a ‘special delivery’ of ‘pest samples’ to their building management office, in an effort to highlight how ineffective pest management has become.

They also dropped off a letter with demands for a meeting between ACORN and LMCH to discuss pest issues.