Public housing residents tell of bed bugs, security concerns

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Bed bugs, non-working washing machines and dryers, and security concerns were among the complaints voiced before the Albuquerque Housing Authority Board of Commissioners on Wednesday by a group of residents living in Embudo Towers.

The two four-story towers, on Constitution between Pennsylvania and Wyoming, contain 101 public housing units for the elderly and disabled. Each floor in each wing shares a communal laundry room. About 20 residents, some with canes and oxygen tanks, attended the housing authority meeting.

Not only are there bed bugs, but people cant wash their clothing and linens because the washing machines and dryers dont work, and even when they do, they dont get hot enough to kill the bed bugs, said resident Jerry Lujan, who organized the group.

Embudo Towers resident and organizer Jerry Lujan addresses the Albuquerque Housing Authority Board of Commissioners on Wednesday about a host of problems at the complex. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)

Lujan said residents have been complaining about the bed bugs for at least three months. Further, some washing machines that were broken into by crowbar-wielding burglars have not been repaired for five months; locks on doors into the complex have been inoperable for more than three years; and the parking lot is poorly lit, creating a dangerous situation for residents who venture out after dark.

Residents, Lujan said, are contemplating a class-action lawsuit or a renters strike.

Linda Bridge, executive director of the AHA, said the agency is aware of the problems at Embudo Towers and has already begun to address them with a systematic, floor-by-floor spraying of each unit. The process should take about six weeks.

The bed bugs, she said, were likely carried into the complex by residents bringing in used or discarded mattresses or furniture. When the small, wingless insects make their way into clothing, residents put them through the on-site washing machines and dryers, which do not get hot enough to kill them. Many are dislodged in the machines and wind up entangled in the clothing of the next users laundry, she said.

In an attempt to stop the spread of the infestation, some laundry rooms were intentionally shut down and residents were instructed to wash their clothing in large commercial machines at laundromats.

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Public housing residents tell of bed bugs, security concerns

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