NYC is still at war with rats, but Mayor Adams won the battle in his Brooklyn home

Mayor Eric Adams is winning the war on rats — at his Brooklyn home.

For the first time since 2023, inspectors found no evidence of vermin at the mayor’s Bedford-Stuyvesant rowhouse, according to health department records documenting an April 8 visit.

"As you may have heard, I hate rats, and I’m proud to have won my latest battle against them," Adams said in a statement.

Adams has made reducing the city’s rat population a key administration initiative. But his anti-rat policies have resulted in health inspectors repeatedly citing him for failing to do his part to eliminate the critters at home. The four-story residence is in one of the city's four “rat mitigation zones,” which get more inspections, enforcement and rodenticide than other parts of the city.

Since taking office in 2022, Adams has been hit with five violations tied to evidence of rat activity outside his home. Inspectors have cited “active rodent signs,” “an active rat runway” and “harborage conditions.” According to records at OATH, the city’s administrative law court, all but one of those violations was eventually dismissed. Adams paid $300 for failing to eliminate vegetation conducive to rat activity.

Adams has previously blamed the rat activity on his neighbors, telling a hearing officer that the entire block was infested with rats. He argued in one hearing that he’d tried to work with his neighbor to fight back the rodents but that he wasn’t successful, according to a hearing document.

Five citizen complaints have been filed about his residence, though only one resulted in a violation, 311 data shows.

The most recent visit, which resulted in no violations, came on April 8.

Adams previously said he'd spent thousands on fighting the rodents at his home.

“I have two machines that collect and kill rats,” Adams said in 2023. Each week, he added, an exterminator “checks them to make sure if there are any new rodents."

At that time, outside his home, Adams had a trap resembling a box that drowned rats when they crawled inside.

Monica Reyes, an eight-year resident of Bed-Stuy, said Adams’ own victory in the war on rats should not be interpreted as a win for the neighborhood.

“ I think the problem is pretty bad. I have lived on other streets here in Bed-Stuy, but this block is pretty bad,” she said. “As you can see. We have a rat smashed right there,” she said, pointing to the flies buzzing around a dead rat at the curb.

Reyes said the war on rats is worth fighting, but that the vermin had chewed through some of the bins she’d purchased after the city’s push to get more of its trash in containers.

“ Eric Adams. Do your job. Clean up New York City. It has never been dirtier. Just trash everywhere. The rat problem, clean up the city,” she said.

On Monday, the front of the residence showed signs of a homeowner paying close attention to the latest sanitation department rules. Waste was stored in two large trash bins, as well as a brown compost bin. All are examples of Adams’ efforts to get waste into bins and off of trash bags left on sidewalks.

"As your mayor, I believe in practicing what I preach, which is why I’ve embraced the use of containers at my home — which deter rats — why I’ve cleared my property of any rat violations, and why rat complaints are down citywide by double digits," Adams aid in his statement. "While I may have won this battle, our war against rats continues, and our mitigation efforts are preparing thousands of New Yorkers like me for the next fight."

In the Brooklyn mitigation zone where Adams' home is located, 99% of properties were inspected for rats in 2024, and 21% showed signs of rat activity, according to the Rat Information Portal.