Zhovone Hinns and her family of five said the story of how they became homeless is similar to many other families.
"We were living in a house and [my fiancé] got sick,” Hinns said. “And when our lease came up we had to move because my income couldn't sustain the rent and he had to stop working.”
Hinns works the morning shift at an area gas station while her fiancé stays in to watch the children and undergoes chemotherapy.
“We were living in our car for a while until we found the Salvation Army Family Lodge,” Hinns said.
But Hinns said their stay at the lodge as of recent has been unsavory.
“I have bed bug bites on my back and then I had some on my face too,” Hinns said. “My daughter has one in her ear. I mean, I'm grateful for having shelter somewhere for my kids to sleep and my family, but this is not okay.”
Major Martha Sheppard runs the lodge and said it's hard to keep the bed bugs out when they come in with residents.
"It is a reality. It's been in every shelter I've worked at,” Sheppard said. “The hardest part is encouraging the residents to tell us, because they come in, and they've lived in their car or they’ve lived in an alley, and sometimes they're afraid they're going to get kicked out if they tell us they have them. So once we know it, it's an easy process to deal with. We won’t get them out but we have to know that they have them.”
It's something staff dealt with Tuesday as they cleaned and treated a room.
"These old buildings sure are wonderful but they sure do bring their own set of problems," Sheppard said.
Staff said the old wood floors along with old wooden bunk beds attract the bugs so they’re trying to replace them.
"We bought metal cabinets metal bunk beds,” Sheppard said. “We bought mattresses that are bed bug resistant."
A handful of other local shelters confirmed they have also dealt with bed bugs including the Tacoma Rescue Mission
“We had a bed bug infestation a while ago and we got rid of them. It’s the reality of many shelters in the area,” said Frank Jackson, Director of Programs for the Tacoma Resume Mission.
For the Salvation Army, Major Sheppard said non-profit shelters with limited funding work off donations. They’re looking for volunteers to assist and help keep up with the folks coming in.
"Sometimes things get past us and people bring stuff in because we don't really have the time to process it so we can always use volunteers to help with that," Sheppard said.
