At Monterey, Mice Take Over

(Updated) Danae Mundy had a good reason to move out of her apartment at Monterey Place and into a hotel: a steady flow of mouse feces dripped from her apartment’s heating vents and — she suspected — made her children sick.

For more than two months, Mundy contacted city officials as well as administrators at the privately managed Dixwell public-housing development, to no avail.

Monterey Place management sent exterminators to kill the mice on four different occasions. The infestation continued.

Mundy (who asked not to be photographed) pushed and pushed until her story reached Zeneida Junes, the property manager at Monterey Place, who agreed to work harder on getting the mice out and to reimburse her for her $1,400 hotel stay and ruined furniture. (Updated: As of Tuesday at around 3 p.m., Monterey paid Mundy for her hotel stay, furniture and an inconvenience fee, all totaling just under $3,000.)

Mundy said she hopes her story will encourage others to advocate for themselves when trying to get past red tape in New Haven.

“Being an advocate for yourself and reaching out to people by yourself can really help with the process of moving things forward,” she said.

Flooded By Rodents

In her seven years at her 26 Webster St. home in the Monterey development, Mundy has had a couple of problems with pests, but not an extensive problem. Then, over the past few months, mice took over her home.

They left feces everywhere. They nested in her closets. They died in her washing machine and sofa.

At first, Munday saw a couple of mice and a few scatterings of feces. Soon those numbers multiplied, no matter how much she cleaned.

“I said, ​‘It’s got to be more than one because there were feces consistently,’” Mundy said.

She connected with Monterey Place managers, who sent exterminators to her house four times over the last two months. But the infestation was too extensive; nothing flushed out the mice.

“They’re doing their best, but their best isn’t working,” she said.

She kept trying. She got in touch with representatives from Monterey Place local and corporate offices, the local health department, and the Fair Rent Commission. She messaged her alder, Jeanette Morrison, who put her in touch with someone at Monterey who informed her of other services available. ​“I contacted freaking [Mayor] Toni Harp,” Mundy said with a laugh.

But, she said, she had to be ​“the greatest advocate” for herself and for her family. So she kept doing research. And she kept picking up the phone and dialing.

A stay-at-home mom until last July, Mundy has four children between the ages of 2 and 17, and she is a few months pregnant. She now works at the Salvation Army. Almost every day, she scrubbed down the floors, walls, surfaces and counters with bleach. She swept the feces into bags, washed the house’s linens and disposed of the rodents’ bodies.

Over time, she found the mice were getting bolder — she found feces on top of her bureau, on the frame of her bed, in her shoe boxes. ​“Every time I see shredded paper, I know there’s nesting going on,” she said.

Once, Mundy looked in her washing machine and pulled out a detached mouse tail with a bit of flesh on the end.

Another time, she washed her daughter’s comforter after finding mouse feces on the fabric. After washing the comforter, she found a dead mouse in it.

“It got to the point where the mice were beating me,” she said.

The last straw came on March 19, she said. Her 2‑year-old daughter was playing on the couch and pulled a dead mouse from between the cushions. The next day, Mundy moved her family into Premiere Hotel & Suites on her own dime. She paid about $100 per night for two weeks, a total she said is ​“double my two-week paycheck.” After that, she moved in with family members in the area.

It was worth it to keep her children healthy, she said. They had developed rashes and coughs over the last month, which she attributed to the constant exposure to mouse feces in their beds and near their food.

“I saw my baby playing on the floor [in the hotel], and I felt relief because I knew that my baby was not going to put mouse feces on her mouth,” she said. ​“I have the right to live in a place that doesn’t contain feces.”

Reinforcing The Holes

On March 23, she sent an e‑mail message to the city health inspector Roslyn Hamilton with photos attached of dead mice behind the refrigerator and in the sofa cushions and of mouse feces behind the sofa and on the window sill. Hamilton and LCI Deputy Director Rafael Ramos visited the house that day.

Ramos said they noted there were small holes in the structure of the home ​“big enough for a mouse to get in.” But they also found a dish of chicken that had been left in the oven and concluded ​“the kitchen was in a condition that would be a good habitat for a mouse because of the condition of the stove,” he said.

Mundy said her daughter left the dish in the oven, but that her home was normally ​“lived in” but clean. She said she felt as though the inspectors were blaming her for a months-long infestation, based on one mistake.

Within the week, Ramos issued a compliance notice to Monterey Place, ordering management to come up with a comprehensive plan to rid the apartment of the mice within three days. Mundy asked to be relocated; Ramos said he did not see enough of a problem to ​“come to the level of a condemnation.” He said he did not notice a smell, common of major infestations, and did not notice the feces falling down the walls from the vents. But two neighboring units also reported problems, including neighbors in one house using ​“live bait,” which likely made the problem worse, he said.

He also did not see the dead mice lying in a mound of feces behind the refrigerator, or he would have had it cleaned up the same day, he said.

Junes, the property manager, met with Mundy last Friday and agreed to reimburse her for the cost of the hotel stay and for the furniture she had lost to the mice.

Part of the problem was a series of ​“miscommunications” between Mundy and the administrative assistant coordinating with pest control, Junes said. ​“It made her feel like she couldn’t get through the proper channel.”

She gave Mundy her e‑mail address for future use and said they would hold a public meeting with other Monterey neighbors to ensure they understand the protocol — preventing future infestations from getting to that level.

Monterey will ​“reinforce the entry point” and clean the unit, Junes said. ​“Until it’s resolved, they’re going to be in there.”

As a mother, Junes said, she ​“empathizes” with Mundy.

“I would have done exactly what she did,” she said. ​“It shouldn’t have gotten this bad.”

Mundy said she is ​“impressed” by Monterey’s eventual response. She will live with relatives until it is safe to move back in. ​“When you do go and speak for yourself on your behalf,” she said, ​“there are people willing to listen.”