515 West 138 Street,

Manhattan, NY 10031

This is a walkup building that is part of a co-op. Majority Spanish-speaking residents. The building is relatively clean, with garbage cans and recycling located directly outside the front door. There is rarely ever a pileup. Some neighbors smoke cigarettes inside, and the smell wafts through the building. Neighbors often throw parties on Friday and Saturday nights. There is a strong sense of community.

While there is a monthly visit from an exterminator who leaves traps and poison, this is no way curbs the quite serious building-wide pest issue. For months on end, regardless of the temperature, no matter how much we cleaned, multiple mice would enter our unit several times a week. Attempts to urge our landlord to bring in a repairman to fill holes at entry points or hire a second exterminator were dismissed or ignored. In one point in our lease, there were ants. And another, an influx of roaches in the kitchen and bathroom. Conversations with the exterminator and with neighbors let us know these issues were not unique to our unit. But little to no efforts were made to mitigate these living conditions. Maintenance requests beyond this, including repairing our broken dishwasher and in-unit washer and dryer, were also dismissed and ignored.

Invest in filling the holds in the apartment, and speak up at your co-op meeting to fix the obvious pest basement-entry issue.