Bed bugs drive senior out of home
Whitby woman, 79, handed eviction notice by retirement community
Tracey Lakovnik thought she was doing the right thing when she moved her mother into a retirement home shortly after her father died, about a year ago. Donna, 79, is facing various health issues, including mobility challenges, and her daughter said she felt she should be in an environment that was close to her Oshawa home, but better suited to her needs.
“My dad had passed and she took ill and she couldn’t stay in the house . . . it was too big and too many stairs, so she moved in here,” said Lakovnik, referring to the Court at Pringle Creek, an independent senior living community in Whitby.
“(I thought, it’s) one floor and she’d always have somebody there, and there’s security.”
About six months after her mother moved into the facility, she said they discovered bed bugs in her apartment. Lakovnik — who grew up in Oshawa but now lives in Bobcaygeon and makes the drive down to visit her mother at least once a week — said she took her concerns to the local health department.
“(They told me) that they don’t consider bed bugs a health issue and because it’s privately owned, they can’t go in,” Lakovnik said.
Since then, she said her mother’s unit has been sprayed four times and she’s been put up in hotels during each treatment, but the infestation continues. When she is there, Lakovnik said staff have instructed Donna to stay in her room, isolating her from the other residents.
“She hasn’t met anybody since this issue because (staff tell) them not to talk to her,” she said, explaining that her mother previously belonged to bridge clubs in the community and enjoys socializing. She’s also been accused of bringing the pests into the facility, she added, which has elevated her stress levels. Last week, she received an eviction order from the company.
“My mom feels like she’s being harassed all the time and she gets upset,” Lakovnik said.
The Court at Pringle Creek is owned by Atria Retirement Canada. Executive director Filippo Zinga responded to a request for comment in a statement sent via the company’s media representative, Ben Adkins. “Our residents’ comfort, happiness and well-being are always our top priorities. We work to maintain an open and ongoing dialogue with all residents and families, and we take seriously any concerns or suggestions that arise through those discussions,” he wrote in an email received on Jan. 9.
“We are actively working with this family to resolve their concerns while continuing to provide all of our residents with the highest quality service and overall retirement living experience.”
Repeated requests for an interview and further comment on the matter, including the eviction notice, were not returned. Lakovnik said her mother’s furniture has since been moved out of her apartment. She is planning to take legal action against Atria and is currently looking for a lawyer.
Glendene Collins, manager of community and resource development at the Durham Region Health Department, said staff have no record of any com- plaints regarding bed bugs at the Court at Pringle Creek.
The department regularly inspects the facility’s food services area as part of its normal procedures, but could go in to investigate other potential problems, if given permission.
“This is a private residence, it’s not a public place that we can just walk in,” Collins said.
“If we get there and whoever made the complaint or what not, they don’t want to let us in their room for whatever reason, then there’s nothing that we can do. Someone has to allow us to go into their residence.”
Collins noted that when it comes to bed bugs, the department has a duty under the Ontario Public Health Standards to investigate complaints.
It would work with the resident and/or facility to resolve the issue, including providing resources and directing them to appropriate contacts, she said.
“If they called in to us, we’d take note of what the activity or the infestation is,” Collins said. “We would speak with the operator to let them know that we have received a call regarding someone seeing evidence of potential infestation (and) we’d ask the landlord questions. The landlord must provide some sort of pest control because as a resident there paying rent, you have a right to have that investigated.”
If the resident is an elderly person, the department would ensure their possessions are properly laundered and check that the problem has not spread to adjacent units, she added.
“Pests are a bylaw concern so we would work with the local municipality if necessary, which then it could be a joint investigation with them,” Collins said.