Widespread inability to access tenants’ units hampering bug and rodent control in LMCH public housing
![High-rise units operated by LMCH High-rise units operated by London Middlesex Community Housing, seen on May 29, 2024. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)](/content/dam/ctvnews/en/images/2024/5/29/high-rise-units-operated-by-lmch-1-6906153-1717030803840.jpg)
The deputy mayor is pitching a more aggressive approach to deal with tenants who are impacting pest control efforts undertaken by London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH).
In a letter to council colleagues, Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis and Coun. Hadleigh McAlister presented the findings of a recent analysis that reveals the extent to which an inability to enter public housing units is undermining the effectiveness of the agency’s pest control program.
A recent analysis by LMCH determined that a pest control program in the first quarter of 2023 was unable to access a large number of units:
- 36 per cent of seniors units
- 49 per cent of adult units
- 39 per cent of family units
Remnant populations of rodents and bugs are able to avoid extermination in the inaccessible units and then spread through common areas back into treated units.
Among tenants, it has led to frustration and a perception that the pest control program isn’t working.
“We have to be able to do a whole building treatment to be really effective, and these non-compliance issues are really a barrier to getting these issues resolved,” explained Lewis, who sits on the LMCH Board.
A rodent bait dispenser, seen on May 29, 2024. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)
The research determined the primary reasons were:
- LMCH was unable to provide access
- tenant refusals
- units not properly prepared by the tenant
Lewis said the result is impacting the quality of life for all tenants, “If the tenant in non-compliance is resisting for months and months and months, that's months and months and months for that infestation to spread repeatedly.”
Tenants who are unable to prep their own units for pest control can receive assistance from LMCH.
The research determined that the assistance is primarily being utilized by people living in seniors’ buildings.
Lewis hopes community conversations and relationship building will help bring some tenants into compliance for the sake of the common good.
However, in other cases it may require stronger action by the housing provider.
“If we can not start to get more compliance, we are going to have to start to get more aggressive with N5 notices for eviction,” he told CTV News. “We have to be fair to the other tenants in these units, and fair to the public dollar that is paying for all of these treatments over and over and over again.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
BREAKING Loblaw, George Weston to settle class action over bread price-fixing for $500 million
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. say they have agreed to pay $500-million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding their involvement in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.
EXCLUSIVE One address, 76 foreign currency dealers: Inside Canada's money service business 'clusters'
An IJF and CTV News investigation has found dozens of cases across Canada where multiple money services businesses (MSBs) are incorporated at the same address, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the location's actual occupant. One money laundering expert calls it an 'abuse of the system.'
U.K. police officer suspended after video appears to show a man being kicked in head
A British police officer was suspended from all duties Thursday after a video was posted on social media that appeared to show an officer kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the floor of a terminal at Manchester Airport.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.