SOUTH ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – Alycia Polk says she lives on her car after getting bed bugs in her unit at La Salle Park Apartments in South City.
“At 2am our kids woke up itchy, I woke up itchy and didn’t know what was going on,” she said.
She says there were bed bugs everywhere two days after moving in January. She showed News 4 an insect trap that she put in her hallway overnight that had nearly 20 bed bugs on it.
“The whole complex is infested,” she said.
Polk is concerned about her health and says she is now sending her children to live with her family while she sleeps out of her car.
Another Lasalle Park resident told News 4 that she had been dealing with bed bugs for two years.
“I recently threw all the furniture out of my house,” she said.
The St. Louis Housing Authority owns and monitors the complex. However, it is managed by a private third-party company, Eastlake Management, based in Chicago.
News 4 reported startling concerns about Eastlake in 2019. Tenants complained of roach infestation in a complex in East St. Louis, a woman in a South City apartment battled severe flooding, and at least two other Housing Authority apartments have complained received via rodents.
Eastlake manages approximately 70 percent of the St. Louis Housing Authority’s real estate. News 4 sent the Housing Authority a list of questions about why they continue to contract with Eastlake despite all the problems. A representative says they are investigating the problem.
News 4 has asked Eastlake for a comment but has not heard from it.
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