Low-income tenants are promised 'decent, safe and sanitary' apartments Watch video
Samara Egana knew the infestation was out of control when her 5-year-old son Moses told her: "Mama, I just saw a bunny."
View full sizeWhen Samara Egana's Franklin Avenue apartment failed a second inspection, the landlord was given yet another month to make repairs.It was brown, with a long tail, he said.
Another rat, she thought.
A month earlier, she had asked the Housing Authority of New Orleans for an emergency inspection of her Franklin Avenue apartment in November. The apartment failed the inspection, but Egana and her three kids were left to stick it out there. When it failed a second inspection, on Dec. 17, the landlord, Eddie Rafidi, was given yet another month to make repairs.
Depressed, Egana spent the next four frigid nights sleeping in her car outside the infested apartment, while her children slept at her mother's.
Egana had rented the place on Franklin through HANO's Section 8 program, which helps low-income tenants rent what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development describes as "decent, safe and sanitary" apartments on the private market.
Her case illustrates how inspections of subsidized housing are unreliable in New Orleans, where about 17,000 Section 8 private rentals have largely taken the place of HANO's once-huge inventory of public-housing apartments, now mostly demolished.
In theory, the Section 8 program ensures that former public-housing residents and other low-income tenants escape unlivable conditions in privately rented apartments. Taxpayers pay most of the rent for Section 8 apartments; tenants pay up to one-third of their household income and HANO pays the landlord the remainder. Rents are set at market rates; Egana's was $850 a month.
In recent years, most properties sailed through inspection. HUD's Office of Inspector General found in 2008 that eight out of 10 randomly selected apartments given passing scores by HANO "didn't meet standards." David Gilmore's staff at HANO found similar results in 2009. As HANO's administrative receiver, Gilmore heads up a fix-it team hired by HUD more than a year ago.
And though Gilmore's team has made strides, the Section 8 program has been in disarray since Katrina. The agency has incomplete data of inspections from previous years because of what Gilmore's team characterized as "a flawed (computer) data conversion."
There is no way for citizens or the news media to analyze records, because Section 8 records are legally off-limits, to protect tenants' identities. In this instance, Egana allowed The Times-Picayune to view her records, and HANO provided documents on other Rafidi properties with tenant information redacted.
But Gilmore's deputy, Keith Pettigrew, said that the agency has good inspections data for the thousands of apartments leased after HANO issued 4,000 new vouchers last year. Of those initial inspections, 45 percent failed the first time, mostly for minor issues such as light switches that weren't properly covered, he said.
"So we're not just rubber-stamping this stuff anymore," Pettigrew said.
Solutions to infestation
In the case of Egana's apartment, HANO's initial inspection didn't catch a rodent problem so severe it drove out not only Egana, but also the previous renter in the same apartment, said Andrew Joseph, who lives on the other side of the double. Rafidi admits that, but says that he thought he had the problem licked before he rented to Egana.
Hours after a reporter contacted HANO last month about the matter, Egana was approved to move to another apartment.
"It doesn't sound like we did a very effective job of caring for her," said Gilmore. "I'm not going to defend it. But dammit, we're going to learn from this."
HANO's new compliance officer investigated Egana's case at the direction of Gilmore but hasn't yet reached a determination, spokesman David Jackson said.
The other tenant, Joseph, says he has seen rats crawling in and out of his walls but he can't yet afford to move. "I'm a grown man, so I can handle it. But the rodent situation is out of hand," he said. "This house is rat-infested. They're in the wall from front to back."
Rafidi receives thousands of dollars in monthly payments from the Section 8 program for nine apartments, at least four of which have had rodent problems documented by HANO inspectors or reported by tenants.
Rafidi said he's combatting the problems by plugging holes with foam and "spending a lot of money" on everything from poisonous bait to what he says are rodent deterrents such as peppermint oil and coyote urine, which he drizzled under the house. He e-mailed a receipt showing he bought $30 worth of rodent glue traps.
People often use foam or caulk to keep out rodents, but sharp-toothed Norway and roof rats can eat right through it, said Claudia Riegel, assistant director of the city's Mosquito and Termite Control Board, which is in charge of controlling rodent populations in New Orleans. They can also eat through wood, she said.
Poisonous bait is "a short-term solution," Riegel said, adding that the only way to make a house truly rat-proof is to see where light is coming in and plug all of those holes. She suggests wire hardware cloth with a concrete patch over the top.
And although it's the city's health department that cites infested properties, homeowners can contact Riegel's department for help. Her staff will do an inspection and make recommendations, although the owner is required to hire a pest-control company to implement the ideas. "We'll help them find the holes," she said, to knock out one arm of what she calls the rodent-infestation "triangle": access to food, water and shelter.
'Playing tag' in the attic
Rafidi blames the problem on Franklin Avenue on a gap next to Egana's air conditioner; a property next door that was cleaned up only a few months ago; and on the way the city's older houses were constructed. He also contends Egana let droppings pile up. "It makes it look like an infestation, and it's not," he said.
Rodents can exacerbate asthma in children and cause diseases to humans through bites and contact with their urine and droppings, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Egana said that not long after she rented the apartment, she started hearing noises in the wall. So she put her food either in the refrigerator or on top of it, and put out some traps. Within a few hours, she'd caught eight mice.
Section 8 tenants in Rafidi's other houses report similar problems, although they didn't want their names used because they still rent from him.
One tenant said it had gotten so bad that she and her next-door neighbor saw rats crawling up their drapes at night. After Rafidi sent someone to throw a five-gallon pail of poison into the attic, the activity went down for awhile. But now, it's increasing again, causing them to check each morning so that they can plug the new holes gnawed overnight.
"We hear them in the attic like they're playing tag," she said.
Rafidi said he doesn't want to be seen as a slumlord, and noted most of his renters have stuck with him.
"Everybody in town has mice problems. These are old, old houses," Rafidi said. "It's hard to peek at everything, because I have a few properties. But if I see any cracks, I'll repair them."
Passed inspection
HANO records show Egana's three-bedroom apartment passed its initial inspection in August and was determined to be in a "medium-rent area" that merited Rafidi's $850 asking price.
Egana had a baby girl in September and stayed with her mother for the first few weeks. But when she and her children returned to Franklin Avenue, they found mice and rats had left piles of new droppings, chewed fist-size holes in a closet and climbed to the top of the refrigerator to eat the cereal.
One morning, as Egana reached down to put her infant into the baby rocker, a mouse jumped out.
That was it.
As Christmas approached, she slept in her car for four nights, hoping HANO would release her voucher. The inspector came and failed the house for the second time, but she still wasn't allowed to move. Egana finally moved in with her mother, who for two months made herself a nightly pallet on the floor while Egana and the children slept in the apartment's only bed.
A few weeks ago, Egana found a new apartment, owned by the landlord who rents to her mother.
Rafidi kept her $500 deposit on the old place, saying the carpets were stained and there were other damages.
As of last week, Egana hadn't saved up enough to afford a new deposit and so couldn't move into her new place. But on Friday, the city's homelessness-prevention program helped make up the difference, and she spent Friday scrubbing and cleaning her new apartment.
Recently, as Egana rode along Franklin Avenue, she noticed a "for rent" sign on the light-blue building she once tried to call home. Thinking about who might end up there, she got a sinking feeling. "If they only knew," she said.
Katy Reckdahl can be reached at kreckdahl@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3396.