TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents at a 55-and-over apartment complex in south Toledo say it's filled with bed bugs and they claim they've been struggling with the problem on and off for years.
About a dozen different residents at Keygate Manor off of Key Street who WTOL 11 spoke with said they were willing to risk their leases to share just how horrible they say it is.
"Well, if I get kicked out ya'll, it's been nice knowing you," said resident Debbie Heer.
Heer moved in two months ago, but in that time her opinion of Keygate Manor has gone from enthusiastic to horrified "because of the infestation of bed bugs," she said. "We feel it's not being handled properly; they're bombing room to room as people have them, they're re-occurring."
Heer and a dozen others who live at Keygate met with me Wednesday, showing they're united against the problem.
While no one in this group has personally had to deal with bedbugs yet, they've certainly seen them.
"When you get on the elevator you can see bed bugs on a guy's shoulder," said resident Richard Krispin.
As recently as October, the group said another resident was discovered to have an infestation and his furniture was covered in plastic and thrown next to the dumpster.
Heer took the following picture showing bedbugs still crawling around inside.
"Thank god I haven't seen any in my apartment or I would have an absolute meltdown," Heer said.
Unlike Heer, Krispin has been living at Keygate since the early 2000s. He says he's seen outbreaks for 10 years and is amazed the complex's corporate owner, Beacon 360, still hasn't properly addressed the issue.
"They know what they have to do. I'm not an exterminator, I don't know what they have to do. But from what I understand there's heat treatment where you seal off the apartment and they heat it up and it kills the bed bugs," Krispin said.
The residents say they've complained to management asking for that kind of treatment, but that it's fallen on deaf ears.
Heer said she would leave, but she can't afford anywhere else. She can't bring loved ones over either, out of fear they'll leave with more than they came in with.
"I have a grandson, two grandsons that I adore, my daughter won't let them come visit me because of that fact," she said.
In a phone conversation, Beacon 360 CEO Celia Kendall said the company tries to address breakouts as quickly as it can, sending in exterminators to spray rooms and even bringing in bedbug-sniffing dogs to make sure they complete the job.
She said in this most recent case, they believe the outbreak is contained to a specific resident, but said bedbugs will always be part of running low-income housing.