The Abridged version:
- A dozen residents of a senior housing complex within sight of the state Capitol told Abridged by PBS KVIE that bedbug infestations have plagued the building and disrupted their lives.
- Some residents claim they moved into apartments that had existing bedbug problems, which they were not made aware of or warned about.
- Residents have complained to the city of Sacramento and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to no avail.
Warren Sanford opened the door to his new studio apartment in late June.
After 20 years of unstable housing in which his mobile home burned down, he moved to three different states and spent time living in a tent by the American River, a homeless services navigator helped Sanford secure a spot at the Park Place Apartments, which provides subsidized affordable housing to seniors.
The 14-story building at 1230 N St. looks over Capitol Park, with lobbyists bustling on the sidewalks below and the cupola of the Capitol Building visible between the trees.
During his first nights in the apartment, Sanford slept on the floor while awaiting new furniture to arrive.
Within a few days, Sanford found himself in a medical office, seeking advice for a rash that had appeared on his arms and legs.
“She said, ‘You don’t have a rash, you have bedbugs,'” Sanford said.
His new couch and bed arrived and quickly became overrun with bedbugs. Sanford said he’s taken to sleeping in his bathtub, the one place the feels safe from them.
“I’m tired of being hamburgered,” he said.
Five residents of Park Place Apartments who spoke with Abridged by PBS KVIE claim the building management company leased them units with active bedbug infestations. A dozen residents detailed accounts of persistent bedbug infestations taking place on multiple floors across the building over the last 10 years.
“They knew before I moved in,” Sanford said.
Ray Stone Inc., the Sacramento-based company that owns the building, denied the allegations.
“We take the comfort and well-being of our residents very seriously and are taking every possible step to ensure that our apartment homes and common areas are pest-free,” said Aubrey Jones, vice president of residential services, in a written statement.
Sanford said that when he used a new vacuum given to him by his homeless services navigator, the chamber quickly filled with a white powder and both dead and twitching insects. When he asked a staffer in the building about the powder, the worker told him it was a “barrier” meant to block out pests, Sanford said.
“I been bit two times by spiders living by the river … I’d rather be living out there,” he said.
Residents reluctant to speak out
For years, Park Place residents complained to their landlord, the city of Sacramento and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, seeking reprieve from the pest issues. Few long-term solutions have arrived.
“The bedbugs thing is hush-hush, people are embarrassed to talk about it,” said Kurtis Lampe, who’s lived in Park Place for the last decade.
The signs are visible. During meal times, Lampe has seen his neighbors arrive at the table with the telltale swollen bumps and blisters from bedbug bites. Building management is quick to blame a tenant’s cleanliness, he said.
“They’ll say its their fault,” Lampe said.
Lampe arrived at Park Place in 2016 after a fire sent him into homelessness. He looked forward to the new apartment as a place where he could dedicate himself to his hobbies, reading and fixing old television sets.
Within two months, bedbugs had burrowed into his bed, box spring and new recliner. Lampe said a building inspector confirmed bedbugs were in the unit.
His furniture was sent off to a heat treatment area that the building management maintains, Lampe said. A common method of killing bedbugs is to expose them to temperatures of 120 degrees for 30 minutes.
“They said, ‘We gotta throw it all away, it didn’t work,’ which is a lie, because if they did it right it would have killed them,” Lampe said.
Ten residents spoke to Abridged on Monday about the bedbug incidents. Multiple residents said they had more neighbors who wished to speak out, but feared losing their housing.
California laws protect tenants from bedbugs
State lawmakers passed a series of laws that went into effect in 2017 and 2018 that added stricter bedbug protections for renters.
“If they know that there’s a bedbug infestation, they’re not supposed to show or lease to a prospective tenant,” said Sarah Ropelato, an attorney with Legal Services of Northern California. The firm provides legal aid to low-income people facing housing issues.
Ropelato said that bedbugs can cause legal tension between landlords and tenants, especially when it comes to who’s responsible for eradicating the pests.
“If you’re thinking about who’s in the best position to bear to burden of these infestations, it’s not low-income tenants,” Ropelato said.
Of the 151 units at Park Place, 143 of them are leased to tenants receiving subsidized rent as of July 1, according to data maintained by HUD.
Taking the measures needed to fully eradicate bedbugs can also be especially challening for seniors, Ropelato said. Tenants can be asked to move their mattress or remove items from walls.
“There’s a lot of physical requirements to be able to do all of that,” Ropelato said. “It’s really hard on tenants without any help and they’re usually left to do it on their own without any help from management.”
Two bedbug infestations on N Street
Areas with clutter — or even a stack of books — can provide shelter for bedbugs, said Robert Kimsey, a semi-retired professor of entomology at UC Davis.
Bedbugs can spread swiftly, and can transport themselves by catching a ride with their hosts or crawling between locations. For example, the pests are capable of crawling from a couch in one unit, through the electrical socket and then into a bed in an adjacent unit, according to Kimsey.
During his time investigating bedbug infestations, Kimsey said they all tend to have one location with a dense infestation.
“There’ll always be at least one place where you’ve got a real serious problem that forms the basis for either of the two methods of dispersal,” Kimsey said.
Another bedbug infestation was discovered earlier this summer at the California Department of Education building, which is two blocks away from the Park Place complex. Kimsey said it was “highly unlikely” that the two infestations were connected.
State authorities have not identified a connection between the two bedbug sightings either.
“At this time, there is no information that indicates how the insects entered the building, and DGS cannot speculate on the source or origin of either incident,” said spokesperson Monica Hassan with the Department of General Services, which is overseeing pest control efforts in the building.
Resident says city code enforcement declined to act
James Cooper moved into Park Place in September 2025 after surviving a stroke and years spent in rehabilitative care.
At first, the studio apartment provided a welcome return to Downtown Sacramento. Within three months, though, bedbug bites began appearing on his arms.
“I call them dreadbugs,” Cooper said.
The bedbugs quickly took over his apartment, and wreaking havoc as he began finding their eggs in his hair and in his beard. The occurrence was both disturbing and confusing — all of his furnishings were new before he moved in, Cooper said.
When he told his neighbors about the issue, he found out that the previous tenant in his unit also frequently dealt with bedbugs.
“I believe they fully were aware of the bedbugs when they leased it to me,” Cooper said.
Cooper said he reached out to a housekeeping service hired for the building who said there were indications that the facility wasn’t fully following its regiment to kill the bedbugs.
He said he filed a complaint with HUD’s hotline for unsafe living conditions four months ago and has yet to receive a response.
He also filed a code enforcement complaint with the city of Sacramento. Cooper said he received a voicemail from the city detailing that they don’t respond to bedbug issues and that it falls under state purview.
Public records acquired by Abridged show that Cooper’s code enforcement case was closed with a note that there was “voluntary compliance” for the issue.
“He was disappointed and advised why don’t I enforce bed bugs and I advised that the state health department handles those call,” the case file states.
The code enforcement officer also noted that, because the building has a documented notice of pest control with the city, code enforcement can’t issue a penalty.
Records show bedbug problems dating back to 2004
Residents and concerned family members have filed complaints about bedbugs at Park Place dating back to 2004. The complaints detail infestation in units on at least six different floors within the building.
While the city has received eight complaints about bedbugs over the years, response from code enforcement varies.
In September 2005, a report was filed detailing bedbugs in an eighth floor unit. The complaint was deemed “unfounded. A code enforcement officer wrote, “Bed bugs are not something we deal with. Case Closed.”
In March 2012, someone filed a code enforcement complaint on behalf of their grandmother who was living in Park Place and “complained of bed bugs,” the case file states. The case file was closed the next day with a note that reads, “This is not a code enforcement issue, case closed.”
Weeks ago, on June 26, a tenant filed a complaint that her apartment was “infested with bedbugs.” Records show that code enforcement followed up with the building manager, who confirmed that the building is undergoing quarterly bedbug treatments.
Maryann Poindexter told Abridged she was the tenant who filed the complaint.
She said she arrived at Park Place after nine months of living in a shelter. She said the bedbugs were apparent from the first day she moved in.
“I walk in, I got happy tears running down my face … and I see something move,” Poindexter said. “I get a tissue and smash it! I smashed six more.”
After complaining, management swiftly moved her to a new unit in the building. At the end of July, however, Poindexter received a letter from an attorney representing Park Place requesting that she leave the fourth floor unit and return to the one where she observed the bedbug infestation.
The letter, reviewed by Abridged, states she could face eviction if she doesn’t move back into the original unit.
The city of Sacramento’s code enforcement “does respond to bedbug complaints, but the process differs from disease-carrying pest violations,” spokesperson Julie Hall said. When a complaint is filed, the city issues a notice to the property owner requiring proof of contract with a licensed exterminator.
Code enforcement officers also worked directly with Park Place in April to establish a “plan to have all individual units and common areas inspected and treated,” Hall said.
Hall added that there is only one active bedbug complaint at Park Place, where a resident was relocated while their original unit was treated. A recent inspection found the original unit was “pest-free,” according to Hall.
The property has passed its safety inspections from HUD in recent years as well. Park Place received a 98 (out of 100) rating in 2023, its most recent inspection. The apartments received ratings of 96 in 2019 and 95 in 2016.
Park Place building managers deny allegations
Representatives from Ray Stone, the building owner, said the entire building is undergoing an “aggressive custom treatment plan,” for bedbugs. Extra treatment was performed on 16 units, according to the company.
“We are committed to the health, safety and comfort of our Park Place community,” Jones, with the management company, said in a statement. “In fulfillment of this commitment, a project is underway to eliminate the emergence of bed bug activity.”
Jones added that each unit undergoes a “six-point process” to ensure that it is clean and well-maintained, “ensuring it is free of bedbugs.” If an apartment is found to have bedbugs, the company’s pest control supplier treats the unit until it is “pest-free,” she said.
The company also cited information from the Environmental Protection Agency that notes a “recent increase” in bedbugs nationwide.
Residents seek more lasting solutions
A group of residents are organizing a new group, dubbed the Park Place Residents Rights Committee, hoping to find long term solutions.
Other residents said they’re looking for new places to live. Cooper began touring new apartment buildings this week, and Sanford said he’s seeking out new options as well.
On Tuesday, the day after residents met to air their complaints about bedbugs, Lampe said he went to the common room on the building’s bottom floor and found that all of the furniture had been removed. Vinyl chairs, couches and communal tables had all been locked behind a door.
“We have no place to gather,” Lampe said. “They say it’s because of the bedbugs … we can’t really be sure.”
