NYC public housing losing the rat race

The New York City Housing Authority is the largest public housing system in the United States, and for years, its homes have been rife with mismanagement, leaky roofs, mold, broken elevators and faulty heating systems. Perhaps nothing is scarier to their 400,000 residents than rats.

Now, in its first quarterly report released last week, the federal monitor addressing problems in the housing authority, said that deadlines to reduce rat population and backlog of pest complaints are unlikely to be met.

The housing authority, or NYCHA employs only 108 pest exterminators, which means each exterminator is responsible for about 1,400 apartments.

Twelve more exterminators were expected to be hired, but the report said that almost 1,000 exterminators would be needed to meet the Aug 1 deadline stipulated in the agreement struck between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the federal government to address pest complaints.

The monitor said that the rat infestation is so bad at the Washington housing complex in East Harlem, residents feel they are "hostages in our own home at night".

In a letter to the NYCHA, the tenant association described rats spilling out of elevators and stairways, and workers refusing to enter compactor rooms "for fear of being attacked by rats". Rats were beginning to climb up clogged garbage chutes and enter apartments, the letter said.

"I have more rats than I do residents," said Tenant Association President Claudia Perez. "For every four dead rats, you see 10 more alive."

De Blasio was asked about the federal monitor report's findings on the rats at the Washington houses. "We don't accept trash piling up. We will fix it and if we find personnel isn't doing their job, they won't be there," he said.

"We don't have a rat problem," Frances Brown, president of Red Hook East Tenants Association in Brooklyn, told China Daily. "We keep the ground clean. We have an exterminator who puts traps out and monitors them. I don't see them running around."

Rats are not exclusive to the NYCHA buildings. The city is a thriving environment for them. With sewer pipes, food on subway tracks and on almost every corner, rats survive and flourish.

scottreeves@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 07/31/2019 page11)