Summary

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite tells the story of how tenants in St. Louis transformed a single pest complaint into a powerful, citywide campaign for housing justice. It started when Sunni Hutton and her neighbors stood up to their landlord’s neglect, and quickly realized their story was far from unique. Unsafe, unhealthy housing was affecting tenants across the city. From that spark, Hutton and others formed what would become Tenants Transforming Greater St. Louis (TTGSTL), formerly Homes for All St. Louis, a renter-led organization determined to shift power and rewrite the rules of housing code enforcement in the city.

With support from HIP's Power-building Partnerships for Health initiative and Right to the City Alliance (RTTC), TTGSTL joined a national cohort of tenant groups and public health departments working together to advance health equity. Through this program, TTGSTL and the St. Louis Health Department began practicing an “inside-outside” strategy, aligning the strength of community organizing on the outside with public agency action on the inside.

Together, they mapped the city’s broken code enforcement process, analyzed where and why it was failing tenants, and paired that data with tenants' firsthand stories. Their findings revealed stark racial and economic disparities: neighborhoods with the highest rates of asthma, lead poisoning, and substandard housing conditions were disproportionately Black and under-resourced.

By building deep relationships with city agencies and elected officials, TTGSTL turned research into real policy wins. They helped pass a mold ordinance, a temperature safety law, and policies requiring proactive inspections, renter notification, and relocation assistance. They also secured administrative reforms, like improved communication between inspectors and tenants, that made the system more accountable and just.

This case story shows what’s possible when tenants organize, lead with lived experience, and work in strategic partnership with public agencies. From a single bed bug complaint to structural housing reform, the St. Louis campaign is a testament to the power of collective action and the vital role of public health in advancing housing justice.

Watch this video with interviews from the organizers to to learn more.