Rat crisis in South Medford

Steve Meacham said if there is one thing he’s learned by attending tenant association meetings in the laundry room at Brooks Park, it’s to carry a flashlight and be prepared to make lots of noise, “because there are a lot of rats.”

Meacham and a handful of other Brooks Park residents were at the City Council’s April 6 meeting seeking help for what they call an intolerable situation at the South Medford apartment building. 

“Essentially, the residents of Brooks Park have been living pretty consistently with rat infestations,” said City Councilor Matt Leming.

Tenants first raised the issue in 2024 after forming the Brooks Park Tenant Association. In December of 2025, they sent a letter to Charlesgate Property Management, which manages the building, after feeling “compelled to bring up the intolerable rat infestation in our apartment complex.”

Leming said in December he took a tour of the building, which was purchased by Charlesgate a couple of years ago. He said the company has purchased a couple of properties around the city and has developed a bit of a reputation for being unresponsive to residents’ concerns. He also said he invited the company to the meeting, but was told it was on too short a notice, which he called fair.

During his visit, Leming said, it was easy to see and smell that the residents’ claims were true. He said the basement, where residents generally hold their tenant meetings, smells of urine and rats, and rat droppings were frequently spotted there.

He said there were also a number of rat holes, where the rodents could easily come and go. Some of the rat holes exit into the adjacent city park, which has its own share of rat holes, he added.

Leming also showed photos of overflowing dumpsters, including one with a dead rat suspended from the underside and another that has been seemingly permanently closed. Both Leming and the residents say the dumpsters are also too small for the property. 

“They’ve been doing what they can to amend the situation, but at the end of the day, this is a case of a landlord that needs to do a couple of very simple things to fix the situation,” Leming said. “They simply have not been putting the investment into these properties.”

Leming said the tenants also took him and Deanna Earle, who is a sanitarian with the Health Department, on another tour to point out the ongoing issues.  

Julia Forster, who has lived at Brooks Park for 24 years, said she hears the rats in the Dumpster when she takes the trash out and has seen them run up the roof that covers the boiler and down the fire escape.

She has also seen them in the laundry room, in the park out front, darting under cars, and running from one garage to another. Forster said they are getting bigger and fatter and there are more of them. She also said she’s afraid to go out at night and never leaves without a flashlight.

Tenant Christopher Ramos said he has seen rats run past his feet, and another resident said he doesn’t live in the same building as Forster and Ramos and even has a separate landlord, but he has no doubt that their problem will soon be his problem if something isn’t done about it.

“I have alerted Charlesgate and sent photos several times,” Forster said. “They do have someone who comes around and does something. One sees the huge black boxes everywhere, but these guys are still here, and nothing has changed. Charlesgate needs to be put on notice.”

In their letter to Charlesgate the residents are asking for the management company to:

• Replace the inadequate and unused dumpsters with new ones that close tightly, preventing rat access. This will require a locked lid and a side door to throw trash/garbage in.
• If the size of the new dumpsters is inadequate to handle residents’ trash, more frequent trash collection.
• Professional exterminator services to get ahead of the problem. 
• Plugging rat holes in the front of the building. 
• Collaboration with the city in eradicating rats in the park, including obtaining all necessary permits for more dumpsters. 

Leming said Charlesgate Management did send him a list of repairs they’ve made to the building, but it was mostly cosmetic, not capital projects. He also said he thinks the city has done its part in addressing the situation and they need to keep the pressure on landlords to let them know it’s not an acceptable way to do business. 

Council President Zac Bears asked if the Health Department was ready to issue warnings or citations, but no one from the department was on hand to answer.

In the end, councilors voted unanimously to send their resolution asking for help for the Brooks Park residents to Charlesgate Management and to find out from the Health Department and the Building Department what the next steps are for filing warnings and citations to address the issue.

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