Low-barrier shelter clients moved after bedbug incident
Uquutaq Society executive director says one bedbug was found and that Iqaluit residents shouldn’t be concerned
Iqaluit’s low-barrier shelter on Niaqunngusiariaq Rd. sits without clients as Uquutaq Society deals with evidence of bedbugs. (Photo by Mosha Folger)
Clients of Iqaluit’s only low-barrier shelter are temporarily staying in hotel rooms after Uquutaq Society staff found a bedbug.
Society executive director Laurel McCorriston said that, on Monday, a client reported a different bug, and when employees checked, they found one bedbug.
“We did notify the department of family services right away,” McCorriston said in her office on Queen Elizabeth II Way. “So, their response was to put people in hotels, which was their choice.”
On Monday, Uquutaq, which also runs 11 housing units and the men’s shelter, will fly in pest control specialists to treat the aging building, located on Niaqunnguusiariaq Rd.
She wants to ensure that Uquutaq’s clients do not have to deal with the pest and that they don’t spread to the society’s other buildings, including the new low-barrier shelter being built on Nipisa St.
“I wouldn’t call it an infestation, because I’ve dealt with heavy duty infestations, and we’ve caught it in good time,” she said. “We’re doing all the proper precautions: throwing out all the cots, having the laundry properly washed, doing the treatment.”
McCorriston, who dealt with bedbug infestations as a property manager in the south, said there is now a preventative bedbug treatment that is not toxic to humans.
“We’re going to do that at the men’s shelter,” she said. “Then we’ll move it to the new building, because the new building is going to have 44 beds, 13 transitional housing units, plus a day warming-centre drop in. That’s a lot more people in and out.”
The clients could return by the middle of next week, she said.
What did family services do to prevent the bedbugs from spreading to the hotel rooms? Did they inform the hotel about the issue?