Bed bug math redux

Note: To view the tables, please scroll down.

New York City’s bed bug statistics should be publicly available, but they are not. The statistics should be accurately reported, but frequently they are not. Therefore, we are diligent with our bed bug math here at New York vs Bed Bugs. We believe very strongly that our city’s bed bug statistics, flawed as they are, should be available from the city on its website; specifically, they should be available from the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT) on this page:

Local Law 47 of 2005 requires the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) to issue monthly reports to the City Council, the Public Advocate, Community Boards and the public regarding data collected on calls made to the 3-1-1 Citizen Service Center. Below you will find links to these reports, along with additional resources on NYC.gov describing the performance of City agencies.

We’ve read those 311 reports and there are no line items for bed bug complaints.

The city’s bed bug statistics occasionally appear in the press but inexplicably the numbers are rarely correct. The most recent example is from this week’s New York Observer, in the Summer Phobias ‘08 roundup:

According to Neill Coleman, a spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, it’s hard to assess the true threat. He said there’s been an increase in the number of bedbug complaints and violations over the past several years (in fiscal year 2004, HPD had 537 complaints, versus 8,840 complaints and 4,243 violations so far in fiscal year 2008, records show), but he also noted that bedbugs make up only a fraction of the more than 500,000 violations the department issues each year.

We were able to obtain year-to-date fiscal year 2008 statistics from Department of Housing Preservation and Development press secretary Seth Donlin. There were 8,840 complaints and 2,757 violations in 2008 as of June 19, 2008.

Why are we calling these statistics flawed? These bed bug complaints from private residential tenants are a subset of the total number of infestations in the city. The New York City Housing Authority which oversees public housing keeps its own statistics. Further, we believe that most New Yorkers never call 311 to complain about bed bugs. Only New Yorkers who are seeking a specific remedy, someone to persuade their landlords to help them fight an infestation, will call 311. New Yorkers who are afraid of retaliation or who are already receiving cooperation from their landlords do not call 311. New Yorkers facing infestations in offices, in news rooms, in commercial locations, in homes that they own, they don’t call 311 either. There is no voluntary, non-adversarial reporting system in New York City to track the number of infestations. Accordingly, the available numbers from one housing agency are a flawed indicator of the scope of the bed bug problem in our city.

With that caveat, we can proceed to an analysis.

We compared the 2008 and 2007 numbers and calculated the percentage increase for each borough in the following table.

New York City Bed Bug Complaints and Violations - HPD

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) seems to verify less than a third of all 311 bed bug complaints—31% in 2008 and 29% in 2007.

One possible reason for the low verification rate is the number of available code enforcement inspectors. Mr. Donlin says there are about 400 HPD inspectors in the city.

At the HPD bed bug seminars we have attended, the instructors have emphasized that HPD inspectors will not accept as evidence a “jar of bed bugs.” We wondered what is the standard used by HPD’s code enforcement inspectors for bed bug violations. Mr. Donlin says that, absent the sighting of actual bed bugs, it is a judgment call for the inspector “based on the observation of fecal matter and blood staining.”

It is worth noting that bed bugs are notoriously adept at hiding and that finding evidence of a low-level infestation can be very difficult even for experienced pest control professionals. David Cain gave us an idea of the required skills for a bed bug specialist when he told us that he seeks to employ individuals with “a good investigational mindset.”

Anecdotal reports from people who have called 311 and received HPD inspections have led us to surmise that HPD likely is best equipped to verify infestations that are quite advanced, where there are bed bugs crawling about in plain sight and where evidence of infestation is obvious. Some of the things we’ve been told by bed bug sufferers include:

• HPD inspectors do not touch or lift any furniture
• They insist on seeing evidence “on the mattress”
• They show up to perform an inspection without notice

It is not surprising, therefore, that there is a considerable gap between the number of bed bug complaints and the number of issued violations.

NYC Bed Bug Complaints/Violations by Community District

Note: You can view a map of the city’s community districts and download your community district profile at the website of the Department of City Planning and you can find your community board, and download maps, at the website of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (CAU).

Community District 0 in each borough is a catch-all category for complaints that can’t be assigned to a community district based on the given address.

Top 12 Community Districts - YTD Fiscal Year 2008

The top 12 community districts based on the number of recorded bed bug complaints are:

1. Bushwick (Brooklyn CD4): 550 complaints
2. Washington Heights/Inwood (Manhattan CD12): 477 complaints
3. Flatbush/Ocean Parkway/Midwood (Brooklyn CD14): 364 complaints
4. West Harlem/Morningside Heights/Manhattanville/Hamilton Heights (Manhattan CD9): 332 complaints
5. Central Harlem (Manhattan CD10): 330 complaints
6. Highbridge/Concourse (Bronx CD4): 298 complaints
7. Astoria/Long Island City (Queens CD1): 271 complaints
8. Kingsbridge Hts/Bedford Park/Fordham/University Hts (Bronx CD7): 251 complaints
9. Sunnyside/Woodside (Queens CD2): 237 complaints (tie)
10. Sunset Park/Windsor Terrace (Brooklyn CD7): 237 complaints (tie)
11. Greenpoint/Williamsburg (Brooklyn CD1): 227 complaints
12. Morris Hts/University Hts/Fordham/Mt. Hope (Bronx CD5): 225 complaints

If you're in NYC, check out our bed bug task force campaign and the latest city-wide statistics. This is our RSS feed. We hope you don't have bed bugs (anymore, ever).