Climate change project turns housing projects into rodent nature preserve

NY Daily News

 

The invasion of raccoons, possums, rats and roaches began after the New York City Housing Authority launched its $550 million overhaul of the Red Hook houses infrastructure in 2017, residents said. The work is part of the agency’s $3.2 billion Recovery and Resilience Program, prompted by the ravages of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“They’re building and digging tunnels, and [rodents] are able to travel underground,” said Alberto Calderon, a New York licensed commercial nuisance wildlife control operator. “So, what they’re doing is giving them ways of entry.”

Sandy hit the Red Hook waterfront public housing development hard, leaving the complex without power and utilities for weeks and in some cases months.

The subsequent environmental overhaul, initially scheduled for completion in mid-2021, remains only 60% done while morphing into an urban wildlife preserve with a 40-acre network of underground tunnels filled with creeping creatures and a plethora of above-ground invaders, residents said.

The plan was to upgrade and harden the complex’s water, heating and piping systems against the effects of climate change. The reality is something totally different.

“We’ve seen an increase of vermin like rats, skunks, and possums, which is something we’ve never seen in the neighborhood before,” said Tavina Willis, a 16-year resident of Red Hook’s West Towers and a community organizing manager at non-profit Red Hook Initiative.

Calderon said that under New York law, only a licensed wildlife operator can remove wildlife like raccoons and possums. And while NYCHA has extermination staff operating in Red Hook Houses, they don’t treat areas that are under construction, according to the agency.

The project’s contractor also uses a private pest control company that specializes mainly in small vermin like rats, roaches, and bed bugs, according to its website. But fed-up residents charge the current efforts are insufficient.