ST. LOUIS – A tenant in a horrible north St. Louis rent-subsidized apartment is facing a terrible problem again of insect infestation.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pays around $1,400 a month for rent on the unit.
Torreese Valentine said she finds insects crawling all over the house, in the kitchen sink and counters, up the walls, and even in her children’s bed.
“Yes, they’re also crawling in my bed with me and my kids as we sleep,” she said. “I’m to the point where sometimes I don’t even go to sleep, I watch them sleep just so that bugs won’t crawl in their ears or anything like that.”
This problem was supposed to be solved after the first time she contacted FOX 2 weeks ago. It showed collapsed ceilings caused by busted water pipes that caused flooding in the entire house. There was also moldy kitchen cabinet, and there were lots of insects.
The building division and the health department descended on the apartment, and the city condemned it the next day. Congresswoman Cori Bush also got involved by pressing the owners to relocate Valentine and her four children while the work was ongoing. They weren’t going to do it at first. But finally, they did move Valentine to a hotel for about two weeks. However, once the work was supposedly finished, she moved back in only to face the same insect problem.
“I would like to see them bring somebody out here and actually a pest control person bring them out here and look at every inch of my house to see,” Valentine said. “When the health inspectors came out, she told me she has to see more than two or three bugs, and I’m telling her it was the daytime, they don’t really come out in the daytime you have to come around here at night if possible, but they’re really out at night really bad.”
FOX 2 contacted the health department again about the infestation and apartment owners. We have yet to receive a response.
