Tower block tenants trapped in ‘living nightmare’ by bed bug infestations: ‘I’m riddled with them’

A month after Gemma Harman moved into her tower block flat with her baby, she started finding hundreds of mysterious bites all over her body. Then her eyes began to swell up, leaving her struggling to see.

Scared and unsure what was making her sick, Gemma went to see a pharmacist, who suggested she may have bed bugs.

“I didn’t think bed bugs existed – I thought they were just a myth,” Gemma told Big Issue. “Then my mum came to my flat and sprayed my headboard with fly spray and millions of bed bugs fell out. I have never seen so many.”

The headboard was taken away and Gemma hoped that was the last she would see of the pests.

• ‘Time to dump the housing ladder’: Inside the fightback against the temporary housing crisis
• Family evicted from temporary housing after having grandparents over for a brew: ‘It blew my mind’

But in seven years of living in Churchill Court in Hastings, Gemma has experienced annual infestations, leaving her too scared to sit on her sofa and Gemma’s now eight year-old son, who has ADHD, learning difficulties and anxiety, too frightened to play in his bedroom.

“It’s an absolute living nightmare here at the minute,” Gemma said. “They are in my boy’s bed. He’s scared stiff of playing in his bedroom because he’s frightened they will crawl all over him and bite him.

“They’re in my bed, they’re in my sofa. There’s bed bug faeces along every skirting board I’ve got. I’m riddled with them.”

Gemma is not alone in this nightmare. Churchill Court is one of four tower blocks in Stonehouse Drive in Hastings known collectively as the Four Courts, run by Southern Housing. Over the last few years, hundreds of residents have had their lives made a misery by repeated bed bug infestations.

Around 50 active cases have been reported directly to the Hastings Area Southern Housing Tenants Association, set up in the spring to represent residents of the Four Courts. However, the group says it is aware of 100 infestations and fears the actual total may be much higher, partly due to the stigma attached to bed bugs.

Gemma says her whole floor – six flats and the communal hallway – is currently infested.

Southern Housing initially told Gemma it was her responsibility to get rid of the infestation, and a pest controller quoted her £1,500, which Gemma could not afford. After a local councillor appealed to Southern Housing on her behalf, they agreed to foot the bill.

But despite numerous treatments, the bugs keep returning.

“Pest control comes out, they fumigate it, and then they come back a couple of weeks later and do it again. But the bed bugs haven’t gone,” explained Gemma. “Then I’m back on the phone to them, saying I’ve still got them. Then they come back out and and do the process again. But they are still here.

“My friend on the same floor has been fumigated 20 times, and they’ve still got them. The stuff isn’t working.”

Southern Housing told Big Issue that since April it had carried out 176 treatments to 35 different flats, costing more than £25,000 and resulting in “some positive effects”.

But Gemma said: “Southern Housing is not quick enough to help with the problem. By the time they get around to helping, the bed bugs have multiplied.”

On one occasion, the housing association removed and replaced Gemma’s son’s divan bed. Other desperate residents have resorted to throwing bedding, mattresses and even sofas off their balconies to get the infested items out of their homes.

Gemma added: “Christmas is coming up. I can’t afford to go and get a new sofa.

“I was going to decorate the flat, but my heart’s not in it now. I put a clock up on my little boy’s bedroom wall, but within a month, there were bed bugs behind it.

“I feel ashamed of it. What have we done to deserve this?”

Nicky has lived in Kennedy Court for three-and-a-half years. She heard rumours about bed bugs shortly after she moved in, but it wasn’t until November 2023 that she experienced an infestation herself.

The 55-year-old said: “We came back from holiday exhausted and I got into bed. I felt a bit itchy and the next thing I knew my husband was screaming ‘get out the bed’.

“There were thousands of them. How the pillow didn’t walk away on its own I don’t know. We had to put the bed out on the balcony.”

Nicky has a compromised immune system, meaning any scratch or bite could have potentially serious consequences. While Nicky started sleeping on the sofa, her 21-year-old severely autistic son refused to sleep in the flat and moved out.

Like Gemma, Nicky says she was initially told it was her responsibility to pay for pest control, but she refused.

After reporting the infestation to Southern Housing it took a week and a half before a pest controller visited the flat. He told Nicky the bed bugs had come into her bedroom via the plug socket. He sprayed the flat with a non-toxic treatment, which is safe for pets and people with allergies.

The bugs went, but in September, Nicky returned home from holiday to find another infestation waiting for her. This time, a different company was called in and they used a pesticidal spray, with follow-up treatments every two weeks.

“Within 24 hours, I couldn’t breathe properly,” said Nicky. “The doctor gave me antibiotics and steroids.

“I’ve just finished my third lot of antibiotics in five weeks. I’m now on a 20-day course of steroids to try and clear my chest.”

Nicky went back to Southern Housing to ask if they could send the first pest controller back with the non-toxic spray, only for the association to deny all knowledge of the visit.

Nicky said: “They said they never used them as they were not on their list of approved companies.

“I said I had a receipt on the firm’s headed paper, signed by the member of their staff who sprayed my flat last year. She said, ‘I’m not going to argue with you, but you haven’t and it’s not on our system that you had bed bugs last year.’”

In response, Nicky’s GP wrote Southern Housing a stern letter, saying she must be moved from Kennedy Court as soon as possible because the “appalling” housing conditions were making her ill.

Nicky provides childcare for her two grandchildren, aged one and three. Before each visit, she closes the bedroom doors and checks her carpets with a magnifying glass.

“I don’t want them near the children,” she said. “I even make them change into clean socks before they leave because I don’t want to spread them.”

Simon Lee, secretary of the Hastings Area Southern Housing Tenants Association, branded Southern’s response to the infestations “lacklustre” and accused the association of a “written-on-the-back-of-a-fag-packet approach”.

He said: “It’s a problem for them that, logistically, is a difficult one to resolve, but they’ve done nothing for years. That’s why we are here now.

“They’ve just treated it case by case, and it was probably obvious years ago that something more robust was needed.”

Southern Housing told Big Issue that it has “committed to a comprehensive treatment plan for all four buildings”.

A spokesperson for the housing association said: “It’s vital we break the cycle of bed bugs at the Four Courts and we believe treating the blocks over a dedicated period of six weeks is our best option to achieve long-term success. This would be at no cost to our residents.”

He added: “We wanted to begin this building-wide treatment straight away, given the scale of the problem and our determination to resolve this issue. We met with residents in the communal lounge in one of the buildings in October and our plans seemed to be positively received.

“However, the local residents’ association has since asked us to carry out further resident consultation before proceeding, which we’ve agreed to do. Our hope is that after this consultation we’ll be able to proceed with the planned building-wide treatment early in the new year, with the support of all residents.

“Bed bugs can be found in the cleanest of homes and are an increasing problem across the country. We already encourage our Four Courts residents to let us know if they’ve any bed bugs so we can take immediate action. We’ve covered all costs of this treatment for over two years and all home visits are logged on our system.

“We employ specialists who use recognised treatment methods, the same as many other organisations across the country. These treatments are perfectly safe and the most effective way of dealing with the pests. Common fly spray has more toxins in than the pesticide our experts use. Alternative treatments, like heat or steam, will kill the bed bugs but don’t tackle any bugs or eggs that are buried.”

He added that Southern Housing remains “committed to tackling this issue” and has updated, and will continue to update, residents about its plans.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. This Christmas, you can make a lasting change on a vendor’s life. Buy a magazine from your local vendor in the street every week. If you can’t reach them, buy a Vendor Support Kit.

Big Issue is demanding an end to extreme poverty. Will you ask your MP to join us?