A violence-plagued Brooklyn homeless shelter has a new affliction — epic levels of rats, roaches and trash, according to residents and workers.
The Bedford-Atlantic Armory Men’s Shelter has been plagued with vermin since a garbage compactor there broke two months ago. The city’s Department of Homeless Services, which runs the 400-bed shelter, is refusing to fix the device, said Derek Jackson of the Teamsters Local 237 union that represents shelter workers.
Previously, workers could compress refuse down so it could fit into a sealed container while it awaited weekly pickup from the Department of Sanitation — but now shelter workers have to toss bagged refuse onto a festering pile the size of a garbage truck.
“It causes an unbelievable smell, it causes rodents — an infestation of rodents that has increased with the rats knowing they have a meal there for six days before they put the garbage out,” Jackson seethed.
“A lot of the officers are female and they’re afraid of what are they taking home to their families,” he continued. “They don’t bring those clothes home — they try to wash them somewhere else.”
Shelter residents said the conditions are nightmarish.
“It’s nasty, it’s bad. As soon as the lights go off, they’re [rats] climbing over the beds, on top of the lockers. I don’t know how they get up there. They’re like ninjas,” said resident Glenn Graham, 48, who has been staying in the Crown Heights shelter for three weeks and said he’s pestered by three or four of the varmints each night.
A video shared with The Post shows a rat sitting on a garbage-hauling tilt truck like he owns the place — before leaping into another trash container.
The union has asked DHS several times to fix the compactor, but the agency hasn’t lifted a finger, according to Jackson, who believes the shelter’s history of violence has put it on the bottom of the city’s to-do list.
“This place is notorious and so the reputation doesn’t make it a priority,” he fumed.
Neighbors also say the rat problem has spilled out into the rest of the neighborhood.
“I see them running in the street. Rats, big ones,” said Rene, who manages the Green Broccoli Farm deli across Pacific Street from the shelter.
DHS reps claimed the garbage and rat conditions were unrelated and said the agency is working to fix the compactor.