Etobicoke residents plead for help amid rat infestation

A rat infestation is plaguing residents in a south Etobicoke neighbourhood.

And they're blaming an impromptu garbage dump set up by residents of a nearby homeless encampment in Mimico's Coronation Park for their new furry neighbours — though a pest control expert and their local councillor say a nearby excavation site is likely contributing to the problem.

Regardless, the neighbours are pushing for action from the city that they say is long overdue.

"There needs to be a massive clean out; there needs to be aggressive action," said Sarah Giles, a 10-year Judson Street resident. 

"It's very upsetting," she said. "It's a quiet community and (we) don't need to see it degrade."

Giles and her neighbour, Dan Irwin, say the area near Royal York Road and the Gardiner Expressway has never had rats before. But they say that changed this past spring, when a tent appeared in the park at 10 Judson. 

Shortly afterward, neighbours told CBC Toronto, more people began setting up tents. As of last week, there were four in the park beside a playground. 

Across the street, garbage has been accumulating in a wooded area on city property, beside a blue tarp lean-to where someone appears to be sleeping. That garbage pile, residents believe, is the source of the rats.

Irwin told CBC Toronto he's trapped five rats in his yard in the last 10 days. A neighbour, he says, has caught four.

"It's a nice community but it's deteriorating because of inaction by the city," Irwin said.

Coun. Amber Morley, who represents the neighbourhood, confirmed a person is living in the lean-to and, in accordance with city policy, he and the others in the encampment will not be forced to move. 

"The city's encampment approach is clear," she said. "The folks taking up residence in our parks are already displaced and unhoused individuals, so to have that person move along is to have them move somewhere else similarly unsuitable."

Morley said the city's priority is to "get them indoors as soon as possible."

Irwin told CBC Toronto he has nothing against the people living in the encampment, but he objects to the dump site that he believes is the main source of the rats.