Rat Mitigation Zone Report: January 2024 to June 2024

The NYC Health Department (Department) submits this report pursuant to NYC Administrative Code 17.133.3 to detail rat mitigation efforts in the Rat Mitigation Zones (RMZ). As required, this report includes:

1. The metrics the Department is using to measure the efficacy of rat mitigation in such zones, including a description of whether the Department has seen improvement, as measured by such metrics, and, if so, how such improvement has been achieved;
2. An overview of the current and planned rat mitigation measures, including goals and specific benchmarks and timelines, in each such zone;
3. A description of the public outreach measures undertaken by the Department in relation to rat mitigation in each such zone;
4. Explanations of the creation or elimination of rat mitigation zones, or any change of boundaries of such zone, since the previous report, if applicable; and
5. Explanations of any changes to the rat mitigation measures used in each such zone since the previous report, if applicable.

Introduction

The Department’s rat control program takes a multi-pronged, evidence-based approach across New York City that builds on our decades of experience. We know that rats thrive when they have ready access to food, water, a place to live, and effective transportation routes. Reducing the rat population, therefore, requires managing garbage, eliminating nesting areas and sealing cracks and holes in sidewalks and buildings. Our approach, called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) includes:

• Inspecting properties to identify areas with rat activity, by conducting:
  • Proactive inspections of every property in a particular area enable the Department to learn where rat activity is greatest and monitor progress over time.
  • Complaint-based (reports to 311) inspections to address New Yorkers’ concerns of rat activity and conditions supporting rats.
• Implementing prevention and control activities by:
  • Ordering property owners to remove conditions on their property that support rats and to hire a licensed pest management professional to conduct extermination.
  • Conducting extermination by licensed pest management professionals on private properties when the owner fails to follow the Order and billing for the service.
  • sealing and collapsing rat burrows in public property (street areas, street trees, gardens, public spaces) by a stoppage team to remove conditions conducive to rats. Providing technical assistance, monitoring, and agency referrals regarding city-owned properties like parks, schools, shelters, and public housing.
• Engaging the public by offering:
  • Free “Rat Academy” training to the public and other agencies.
  • Print and digital educational materials for multiple audiences in multiple languages available on our Rat Information Portal (www.nyc.gov/rats).
  • Case management for properties failing to remediate rats or conditions attracting rats.
  • Information at health fairs and community events and community walkthroughs.
  • Sharing data on the Rat Information Portal and Environment and Health Data Portal.
    • Rat Inspection Mapping Tool
    • Environment and Health Portal
    • Inspection data at the borough and community district level
• Collaboration with other city agencies and City Hall to coordinate IPM efforts across neighborhoods and in the public realm by:
  • Surveying public schools, parks, and NYCHA developments for rat activity
  • Offering training and technical assistance to agencies
  • Meeting monthly to review challenges and coordinate solutions at the neighborhood level

Rat Mitigation Zones

The Department’s inspection data shows that rat activity in NYC neighborhoods is not equally distributed. Some neighborhoods bear a higher burden of rat infestation. Those neighborhoods tend to be densely populated, have high foot traffic, have an abundance of food service establishments, and a higher proportion of city-owned property. To effectively address rats, city agencies, property owners, and residents in these areas must work together. Rats do not observe property lines or distinguish between public and private ownership. To reduce rat populations in New York, everyone in a neighborhood, both private and public, must work together, across our usual boundaries and in times and places that matter most to rats.

The areas of the city found to be the most infested need intensive inter-agency support to address the underlying (both structural, and behavioral) conditions that support high rat populations. The Department refers to these areas as Rat Mitigation Zones (RMZs). In 2023, Local Law 110 required the Department to codify RMZ designations using certain criteria. The Department promulgated an agency regulation on July 7, 2023, and designated four RMZs: the Grand Concourse neighborhoods in the Bronx; Bushwick, Bedford Stuyvesant, and Prospect Heights in Brooklyn; West, Central, and East Harlem; and the East Village, Lower East Side, and Chinatown in lower Manhattan. Table 1 describes the four RMZs. These zones consist of 37,545 properties (tax lots), including city-owned properties that are routinely surveyed (209 parks, 79 NYCHA developments, and 184 schools).

The report summarizes data for the first three 6-month rounds (January 2023 - June 2024) of inspections and interventions in the four RMZs since implementation of Local Law 110.

1. The metrics the Department is using to measure the efficacy of rat mitigation in such zones, including a description of whether the department has seen improvement, as measured by such metrics, and, if so, how such improvement has been achieved.

The Department is using the metrics set out in the Local Law to measure the efficacy of rat mitigation efforts. Those are:

1.  Commissioner orders to abate (COTA). The number and percentage of inspections for properties within a given area that resulted in a COTA issued by the Department pursuant to section 151.02 of the Health Code in each 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024.
2.  Summonses. The number and percentage of compliance or follow up inspections for rat activity for private properties within an RMZ that have resulted in the issuance of a summons pursuant to section 151.02 of the Health Code in each 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024.
3.  Rat exterminations and Stoppage visits. The number of visits by the Department's extermination team at properties within an RMZ in each 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024, executed by the Department pursuant to section 17-147 of the Administrative Code following a failure to comply with an order issued pursuant to section 151.02 of the Health Code.
4.  City agency referral letters. The number and percentage of inspections for properties within a given area that resulted in the issuance of a city agency referral letter by the Department in each 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024.
   
  a. Susceptibility to rat infestation. The number of properties that are managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC DPR) that have failed inspection for rat infestation in a 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024 with an RMZ.
5.  Reports to 311. The number and nature of 311 requests for service or complaints related to rat activity within each 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024.

A COTA is sent to a private property owner when an initial inspection identifies any Health Code violation at the time of inspection including garbage conditions, harborage conditions, or any active rat signs. The COTA includes an inspection report and the follow-up actions expected of the property owner.

Overall, in the first six months of 2024 in the four RMZ, 9,993 COTAs (24% of 41,703 initial inspections) were mailed to private property owners (Table 2). The total number of initial inspections was approximately the same from January to June 2023 (42,240) to the first half of 2024 (41,703) but the percent of total inspections that resulted in a COTA increased (22% in 2023 compared to 24% in 2024).
This increase is seen in Bronx Grand Concourse (from 26% in January to June 2023 to 30% in January to June 2024) and Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick RMZs (21% in January to June 2023 to 27% in January to June 2024).

Within about four weeks of the COTA being mailed to the owner of a private property, an inspector will conduct a follow-up (compliance) inspection. If the inspection identifies any Health Code violation, the property fails the compliance inspection and the Department issues one or more summons subject to fines to the owner of the property.

Table 3 shows the total number of compliance inspections for each RMZ in a 6-month period and the number of failed inspections where a summons or summonses were issued (this includes repeat compliance inspections on properties that failed multiple times). In the first six months of 2024 in the four RMZ, the total inspections with a summons(es) issued was 7,221 (67% of 10,698 compliance inspections). Although the total compliance inspections increased from January to June 2023 (8,386) to January to June 2024 (10,698), percent of inspections with summons(es) remained approximately the same (66% 2023 compared to 67% in 2024). In all RMZs other than Harlem, the percent inspections with summons(es) increased compared to January to December 2023, with the largest increase in East VIllage/Chinatown (Bronx from 61% to 66%; Brooklyn from 67% to 70%; East Village/Chinatown from 49% to 62%). In Harlem the percent of inspections with summons(es) decreased from 77% in January to June 2023 to 66% in January to June 2024.

III. Visits by the Department’s Extermination and Stoppage Teams

Property owners are required to maintain their property free of rats and the conditions that are conducive to rats. In cases where owners fail to maintain their property, the Department may act by treating the private property and billing the owner for the work. The Department’s stoppage team works on public spaces like street trees, green streets, or parks and gardens. Stoppage actions include collapsing earthen rat burrows or sealing structural holes that allow the free movement of rats.

Table 4 provides a count of visits by the Department’s extermination team and the stoppage team. The total number of extermination visits in the four RMZs was 10,870, similar to the number of extermination visits in January to June 2023. By RMZ, the number of extermination visits is approximately the same in Bronx Grand Concourse (around 2,100 visits for both January to June 2023 and 2024) and East Village/Chinatown (around 1,100 visits for both 6 month periods). but increased in Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick (3,003 visits in January to June 2023 to 4,625 in January to June 2024) and decreased in Harlem (4,176 visits in January to June 2023 to 3,059 in January to June 2024). The number of stoppage visits increased in Harlem, Bronx Grand Concourse, and the East Village/Chinatown and remained about the same in Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick.

IV. City agency referral letters

A city agency referral is sent to a city agency when an initial inspection identifies any Health Code violation at the time of inspection on a property they own or manage.

In the first six months of 2024 in the four RMZs, 2,358 city agency referrals (6% of 41,703 initial inspections) were sent to city agencies (Table 5). The percent of inspections that resulted in a city agency referral remained the same from January to June 2024 and January to June 2024. The percent of inspections resulting in a city agency referral remained the same in Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick (2% in both 6-month periods), Harlem (8% in both 6-month periods), and East Village/Chinatown (10% in both 6-month periods). In Bronx Grand Concourse, the percent of inspections resulting in a city agency referral decreased (from 8% in January to June 2023 to 6% in January to June 2024).

   a. Susceptibility to rat infestation.

Properties that are managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC DPR) are heavily used by New York City residents for multiple recreational purposes, many of which can result in creating food sources for rats. Combined with the ample earthen spaces that rats love to burrow in, parks are very attractive to rats and uniquely susceptible to them. These properties are routinely inspected by the NYC Health Department.
In the first six months of 2024 in the four RMZs, 169 NYC DPR properties failed initial inspection (89% of 190 properties) (Table 5a). The percent of properties that failed initial inspection increased from 69% in January to June 2023 to 89% in January to June 2024. This pattern was seen consistent across the four RMZs (Bronx from 67% to 88%; Brooklyn from 57% to 90%; Harlem from 78% to 89%; East Village/Chinatown from 66% to 89%).

V. Reports to 311

Table 6 and 6a show the number of 311 complaints received in each of the four RMZs for overall rodent- related complaints and for the descriptors of rat sighting, signs of rodent, and conditions attracting rodents over a 6-month period from January 2023 to June 2024. Comparing 2023 to 2024, rodent complaints across the four RMZs increased from 3,831 in January to June 2023 to 4,194 January to June 2024 (Table 6a), with the most notable increase in Bronx Grand Concourse (from 576 Rodent 311 complaints in January to June 2023 to 645 in January to June 2024) and Harlem (from 1,743 complaints in January to June 2024 to 2,301 in January to June 2024) (Table 6). In Bronx Grand Concourse, this increase in overall rodent complaints is driven by increases in rat sightings (from 335 complaints in January to June 2023 to 435 complaints in January to June 2024). Complaints for signs of rodents and conditions attracting rats remained relatively similar between the 2 years. In Harlem, the increase in rodent complaints is driven by signs of rodents (from 469 complaints in January to June 2023 to 1,205 complaints in January to June 2024), with decreased complaints in rat sightings (921 complaints in Jan-Jun 2023 to 849 complaints in January to June 2024) and conditions attracting rats (249 complaints in Jan-Jun 2023 to 181 complaints in January to June 2024). Overall, the number of complaints for rat sightings decreased from 2,236 in January to June 2023 to 2,124 in January to June 2024 and has decreased in all RMZs except Bronx Grand Concourse.

2. An overview of current and planned rat mitigation measures, including goals and specific benchmarks and timelines, in each such zone.

Initial Inspections and Neighborhood Indexing
Initial inspections are both proactive (each property in the RMZ is inspected 2 times a year) and reactive (inspections in response to 311 complaints about a property). Each property in the four RMZs are categorized into 1 of 6 cohorts, where each cohort of properties is designed to be similar in character to the overall RMZ in terms of percent of city-owned properties, percent of parks, etc. The cohort design provides three valuable sources of information: identification of individual properties with active rat signs or signs conducive to rats, a monthly snapshot of the RMZ rat activity, and rat activity of the entire RMZ every 6 months (referred to as a full round). This has been used by the Department as a monitoring tool. Increases in percent of inspections with active rat signs over several months can trigger an increase in enforcement, outreach, or treatment in an area.

Systematic rat indexing inspections of individual properties of the entire RMZ are essential as it allows for identification of properties with active rat signs or signs conducive to rats, especially in areas where the public under-utilizes the 311-complaint system. Failing inspections trigger the mailing of a COTA or city agency referral letters. COTAs and city agency referral letters include a detailed inspection report which lists the follow-up actions expected from the property owner. We do see an overall increase in percent of private property inspections that resulted in a COTA (Table 2), but the increases were seen only in Bronx Grand Concourse and Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick. The percent of inspections that resulted in a city agency referral letter remained the same over the four RMZs and Brooklyn from 2023 to 2024 but decreased for the Bronx (Table 5).

The Department uses a variety of strategies to respond to high rat activity in a neighborhood, including elevating fines for repeat offenders, performing coordinated inspections with other agencies on problematic properties, increasing extermination and stoppage visits, and increasing the number of community outreach activities. The goal is to decrease the percent of failed initial inspections. The Department also works closely with partner agencies on reducing the number of city agencies that fail inspections and reducing the severity of rat infestation on city-owned property, which is discussed in the section “Collaboration with NYC DPR, NYCHA, and NYCPS.”

Complaint-based inspections
Initial inspections can be reactive (inspections in response to 311 complaints about a property). When a 311 rodent complaint is made for a property in the RMZ, a new inspection will be initiated if an inspection has not been performed on that property in the last three months or if the property is not currently undergoing the enforcement process that resulted from a proactive inspection. If enforcement has been initiated and the property continues to receive complaints, the Department may also elevate the enforcement work to increase fines on the property. In the RMZs , the number of all rodent complaints increased from 2023 to 2024 (Table 6), with the most notable increases in the Bronx Grand Concourse and Harlem. The increase in rodent complaints in the Bronx mirror the increase in percent of initial inspections resulting in COTAs. This is not the case for Harlem, where the percent of inspections resulting in COTAs decreased. Harlem was a newly established RMZ in 2023 and the inhabitants of the zone were likely not very familiar with the tools the City and the Department use to mitigate rodent issues. The goal is to continue to respond to every complaint in a timely manner (within 14 days).

Compliance Inspections and enforcement on private properties
A follow-up (compliance) inspection is conducted on private properties that failed the initial inspection about four weeks after the COTA is mailed. If active rat signs or conditions conducive to rats are identified in the compliance inspection, the Department will issue one or more summonses with associated fines to the owner of the private property. The percent of compliance inspections with summons was approximately the same in 2023 and 2024 (Table 3), with increases noted in all zones except Harlem. With every compliance inspection, the Department’s case managers seek to improve compliance by working with property owners and managers to resolve the issues noted on inspection and giving them time to perform the remediation work. If the property owner fails to act, the case manager can repeat the compliance (elevate the compliance) on the same property, where each subsequent failed inspection elevates the associated fines. The goal is to decrease the percent of compliance inspections with summons.

Extermination Visits and Stoppage Visits by the Department
When private property owners fail to maintain their property free of rats and conditions conducive to rats during a compliance inspection, the Department may act by treating the property and billing the owner for the work. Department exterminators and the Department’s stoppage team may also take action on public spaces like tree pits, street areas, or parks on an emergency basis. Overall extermination visits in the four RMZs are the same between 2023 and 2024 (Table 4), with some increased extermination efforts in Brooklyn Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick. Stoppage visits increased in all zones except for Brooklyn. This is consistent with efforts by the City to decrease reliance on pesticides alone and to increase structural controls. The Department is working with other agencies to evaluate the types of rodent treatments used by exterminators and is planning to deploy new methods and products in the next year. With the goal of shifting focus from extermination/baiting methods to preventative methods, the Department is working to increase the use of structural and behavioral controls for rats.

Collaboration with Parks, Public Housing and Schools
Under the Neighborhood Rat Reduction Initiative, the Department has collaborated with NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), the NYC Housing Authority and NYC Public Schools to assess rat activity and conditions conducive to rats in their respective properties in the four RMZs by conducting monthly surveys and using this data to test and evaluate rat mitigation methods, with a renewed focus on IPM. From January 2023 to June 2024, 209 parks, 79 NYCHA developments, and 184 school buildings were surveyed monthly. Metrics collected include earthen burrow counts, structural holes, other signs of rat activity, presence of garbage and/or harborage and individual agency remediation efforts. This inter-agency work is being carefully tracked in monthly Rat Task Force meetings at City Hall. The goal for all agencies is to decrease the primary metric of interest (earthen burrow count for NYCHA and DPR and percent failed on survey for NYCPS) by 30%.

3. A description of the public outreach measures undertaken by the department in relation to rat mitigation in each such zone.

The Department has an active community outreach program. The outreach and education program consists of free training that can be tailored to a wide range of audiences; educational materials in multiple languages on rat reduction and prevention methods; a robust online Rat Information portal (www.nyc.gov/rats), which provides access to both guidance materials and inspection results; and participation at community events to promote best practices in rat prevention strategies.

The Department’s “Rat Academy” offers free trainings to the public teaching IPM techniques to safely prevent and manage rats. An elected official, Business Improvement District (BID), block association, or community group can sponsor or host a Rat Academy training for their area, and the Department can tailor the Rat Academy curriculum to the audience and the neighborhood. Tailored ‘Rat Academies” have already been presented to private property management companies, landlords, owners, businesses, urban gardeners, and city agencies. One component of the class is to teach attendees to use the Rat Information Portal to track inspections.

From January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, the Department offered 24 Rat Academy trainings. The trainings had a total of 553 unique registrants and 442 training participants. Mayor Eric Adams and Director of Rodent Mitigation Kathleen Corradi showed their support for this work by attending multiple Academies, and four Rat Academy events were sponsored by elected officials.

Some of the education materials shared at each event include:

• Pest Management Tips for Building Residents (PDF) | Español
• Preventing Rats on Your Property (PDF) | Español | 中文
• How to Control Pests Safely (PDF) | Español

The Rat Academy Team attends community events to promote best practices in rat prevention strategies, provide printed materials on rat prevention, respond to complaints, questions, and comments, and share our Rat Academy programming online. From January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, the team attended 27 Community Events/Health Fairs across four boroughs including Brooklyn (10), Manhattan (9), Bronx (2), and Queens (6). Case managers assigned to the four rat mitigation zones also routinely engage with the community and offer personalized on-site support to owners and businesses that need assistance.

4. Explanations of the creation or elimination of rat mitigation zones, or any change of boundaries of such zone, since the previous report, if applicable.

The creation of the RMZs by rule promulgated on July 7, 2023, is described above. In an effort to expand our presence in neighborhoods outside of the four RMZ, and assess new potential areas of concern, the Department is indexing 29 additional annual indexing zones in 2024-2025. Annual indexing zones are areas throughout the five boroughs that historically have had higher rat activity or are newly identified areas of concern. The primary goal of having additional annual indexing zones is to have a mechanism to monitor rat activity citywide and to respond to existing or emerging infestation. This data will be used in the future to evaluate the need for new RMZs.

5. Explanations of any changes to the rat mitigation measured used in each such zone since the previous report, if applicable.

There are no changes in rat mitigation measures since the 2023 report. Please refer to the appendix for reporting differences in metrics in the published 2023 report and the current report.

Appendix