A resident of a social housing unit block at Hamilton South which has become infested with rats says she fears for the health of herself and her neighbours.
Fay Rothero says she has been asking the government for five months to fix the vermin problem, but nothing has been done.
"It's just so slack, they need to up their game," she said. "To have these things happen, it's just not right.
"It's a health problem, we've got a lot of elderly and disabled people here. We have enough problems with COVID without having rats too.
"What if you put your hand somewhere and got bit? They're disease-carrying things."
A spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Environment claimed the issue was brought to the attention of the Land and Housing Corporation in mid-January and they have organised a rodent treatment program to start on February 14.
Ms Rothero says the residents of the high rise kept the building clean, tidy and looked after the place. She believed the problem stemmed from skip bins kept on site.
"Ours are not slums," she said. "It's a good building, a good community and people do make sure there's no litter."
"2019 as far as we can recall was the last time the skips were taken away and fresh ones brought in.
"It used to be every couple of months.
"You can see the impact and you get the stench too. There's garbage chutes on each floor, 57 units in each block."
The department spokesperson said the skip bins were "cleaned regularly as part of fortnightly maintenance and are replaced if they are damaged or cannot be cleaned adequately".
"A LAHC representative carried out an inspection of the bin room this morning and no issues were identified with the bin or the bin room, which was found to be in a clean and tidy condition."
Ms Rothero said the problem was getting progressively worse.
"They are nesting," she said. "I've seen these rats run in this gap in the wall. They're large rats too."
