Pests bug residents of West Lynn rooming house

LYNN – Residents of a Light Street rooming house complained Tuesday that the dwelling is infested with cockroaches and bedbugs.Steven Monaco, of 41 Light St., said his rooming house – with 31 rooms in all – is infested with the insects and files complaints nearly daily at City Hall.?I?ve lost everything,” said Monaco, who has lived there for 5? years. “I had to throw my furniture out. Cockroaches and bedbugs are embedded into the wood.”Monaco, a disabled veteran stationed peacetime in California, said the infestation in the building, which was used as a hotel in the 1950s, exploded 2? years ago. The infestation bothers Monaco so much that he is being threatened with eviction for non-payment of rent.?I haven?t paid in five months, because as a tenant, I have rights by law for the place to be clean,” Monaco said. “I haven?t received an eviction notice yet, but I could be living on the streets.”Assistant Manager Joseph “Keith” Pace, who Monaco said is a registered Level 3 sex offender but still has the keys to each room, disagrees. He and landlord Patrick Targette wouldn?t allow access inside for Item reporters or photographers, but they stayed outside the building to gather statements about the bedbugs and living conditions.?I don?t have anything to say,” Pace said. “The landlord, Pat, and I are doing everything we should be doing. He?s going to get evicted for not paying his bills. He should be trying to find a job to keep himself occupied instead of fighting about this.”William Coyle in Room 17, another tenant who was a homeless veteran prior, agrees with Pace, adding the city sprays on a weekly basis to help reduce the infestation.?It?s an older building that has bedbugs. It is what it is, and like Keith said, everything is being done that possibly can be done. For instance, Pat went above and beyond for (a tenant). He paid for his laundry.”Jim Henry, a tenant for 3? years who previously lived in a Boston shelter, said he had to change rooms because the “bedbugs ran the place”. Like Monaco, he called the Board of Health for inspection and extermination.?I want to find another place to live,” Henry said. “It used to be nice, but a house should be clean. I wish I wasn?t here. I?ve seen one cockroach and one bedbug in my current room.”Agreeing, James DiCrescenzo, a tenant of seven months in Room 11, who does laundry just to kill the bugs and was in a Wakefield group home prior, said part of the problem is once the bedbugs are nested in the building, there?s not much that can be done.?It?s an epidemic in places like this,” DiCrescenzo said. “It?s not right they?re getting away with it, and we shouldn?t be here.”His roommate, Joseph Butler, tenant of four years who lived in a Lynn shelter prior, said he went to the doctor two days ago for severe bites and rashes all over his body.?As of late, I don?t like it,? Butler said. “The heat doesn?t always come on.”The Board of Health confirmed there wasn?t heat several times in January, but that it was quickly restored. City Hall documents also confirmed a violation of the health code stating that the “owner of two or more dwelling units keep the units and the premises free of rodents, skunks, cockroaches and insect infestation”.According to David Goodyear, health inspector, the inspectional services department issued a $500 fine for violating State Sanitary Code Chapter II: Minimum Standards of Fitness for Human Habitation for filthy conditions, including dirty bathrooms, leading to few showers and poor living conditions. In the meantime, licensed exterminators are hired and spray on a weekly basis, as Coyle said.Michael J. Donovan, chief inspectional services/building commissioner, said in the last month alone the owner was fined $350 along with a $1,000 fine from the fire department for not maintaining the fire protection system, and there have been 12 complaints since late October and orders written to abate the property of bedbug infestations.?This property has generated complaints a