Weymouth apartment residents say bed bug problem not being resolved

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — A Weymouth apartment building is infested with bed bugs. Some say it’s been a problem for years and nothing has been done about it.

The problem seems to be especially critical on the sixth floor of Pope Towers where a little girl was bitten last weekend and where, several sources say an elderly woman was bitten so badly, she had to seek medical help.

The housing authority says this is an intermittent issue, but that's not how some tenants describe it.

“Three units that I know right now are infested,” said tenant Joanne Reeves.

The bed bugs are a source of increasing frustration for some tenants at the affordable apartment building and despite a monthly inspection program and fast treatments.

“We have a few people here who recently moved in and they wonder why we still have to have the ongoing inspections and I said that's because we demanded them,” said resident Betty Lamson.

Boston 25 spoke off-camera with Mike Flaherty, Executive Director of the Weymouth Housing Authority who says the bed bug complaints are "occasional" and that it has not been, as the tenants said, a long-standing issue. Flaherty also say it is confined to two apartments that are both getting treated.

But Boston 25 found an article in a local newspaper which indicates Pope Towers had a bed bug problem as far back as 2012. The source for that information was Mike Flaherty of the Weymouth Housing Authority.

Some residents tell Boston 25 News they'd like to move out of Pope Towers, but can't afford to rent somewhere else and they fear that what a pest inspector recently told Reeves might be true.

“He said, you're never going to get rid of these,” said Reeves.

Late Monday afternoon, the Weymouth Housing Authority advised tenants that apartments on the 6th floor will be inspected for bed bugs this Wednesday.

Cox Media Group