West Mifflin mom says she can't get help evicting a family of raccoons in her ceiling
WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (KDKA) -- A West Mifflin family says another family moved into its apartment uninvited -- a family of raccoons.
Imagine standing at your kitchen sink and looking up to see a pair of yellow eyeballs staring back at you.
A family who says no one's helping them evict these furry squatters called KDKA Investigates.
It's a kitchen filled with back to school calendars, fruit pouches and a concerning patch job on the ceiling.
"I can make anywhere a home but that right there -- they can have it," Olivia Johnson said.
Johnson captured cell phone video while trying to keep her three little girls safe and out of the kitchen. It was cute until the growling started.
"That right there? They can have it. They can have the entire apartment, they can have the lease, they can put their name on it," she says.
Johnson said a leak in the ceiling turned into a hole that turned into a peephole for her new roommates: a family of raccoons. But when she called the management at Mon View Heights Apartments in West Mifflin, she said she only got a patch job -- just a piece of plywood over the hole.
"Here I am bleaching everything, all of our stuff, because of all of that mold and old wood has gotten into our cabinets and fur actually was on our dishes," she said.
She said the apartment's maintenance man called out a wildlife expert.
"Big Daddy Wildlife came. He came in and said he has dealt with this for 15 years in this apartment complex and he can't get up in there and I can't blame him."
So she's stuck, just a few weeks out from the start of school. She said she's fighting to move to another apartment since these critters aren't moving.
"Having three girls and having little girls, it's the fact that now they know and they're like, 'oh we have raccoons' and it's like, 'no that's not how you live.'"
KDKA-TV tried to talk to the management office at Mon View Heights in West Mifflin but the security officer told our team to leave the property. According to online listings, it's subsidized housing, eligible to receive government funding with a HUD contract. Most of the people living there said they pay an adjusted price for rent and utilities.
HUD did reach back out to KDKA-TV saying it just made contact with the property manager of Mon View Heights. The property manager told HUD it's working with a wildlife management company and has made repairs to the property. KDKA-TV pushed back, questioning the repairs and also reiterating the wildlife company allegedly told the tenants they couldn't reach the raccoons.
The statement read:
"Resident health and safety are a top priority for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD is engaged with the property manager of MonView Heights and has been updated on its efforts to address this situation. The property manager is working with a wildlife management company to remove the animals and has made repairs to the property to prevent further intrusion. We will continue to closely monitor the complete resolution of this matter."
For Johnson, it's a matter of human decency.
"Let's make it make sense around here. If we destroy things we get sued but if you guys have this situation happen, it's 'OK, it's all right, just have them live in there,'" Johnson said.
