Boston Rat Hearing: 6,018 Complaints, Calls for a Rat Czar

Boston city officials told a City Council committee on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, that the city has responded to 6,018 rat complaints, issued 785 citations and treated 750 locations since Jan. 1, as residents from at least seven neighborhoods testified that the Boston Rodent Action Plan has not yet kept pace with the problem, according to Universal Hub.

Inside the rodent action plan hearing

The hearing, held by the council’s Committee on City Services in the Iannella Chamber at City Hall, was called under Docket #1804, an order to review the status of the Boston Rodent Action Plan. The order was sponsored by Council President Liz Breadon and Councilor Ed Flynn, who chairs the committee, according to the city’s hearing notice. No vote was taken; the docket remains in committee. We previewed the session in our Oct. 21 report on the rodent action plan hearing.

What city officials reported

According to Universal Hub’s account of the hearing, city officials described work that includes:

• Sound sensors installed in sewers in the North End, Chinatown and South Boston to track rats as they move underground for the winter.
• Rodent-resistant dumpsters at some Boston Housing Authority developments, and rodent-resistant trash receptacles across Chinatown and Mattapan Square.
• Park redesigns with new trash receptacles and fewer places for rats to hide.
• A team of 14 full-time staff who bait and track rats, and Inspectional Services Department (ISD) inspectors who cite property owners who leave trash and food waste exposed.
• Burrow treatments that inject carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide into rat burrows.

John Ulrich, the city’s assistant commissioner of environmental services, said the city has stopped using rat contraception because it did not appear to work, Universal Hub reported.

Residents push for a rat czar and trash containers

Residents from South Boston, Chinatown, Bay Village, the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, East Boston and Allston testified. Several credited city staff for their efforts but said the work is not enough in dense neighborhoods where people have no place to store trash cans and must put bags out the night before pickup.

Bay Village resident Susan Buta said the city’s rule requiring trash at the curb no later than 6 a.m. leads residents to put bags out overnight, and she said conditions were better under the earlier 7 a.m. deadline. She also raised concerns about the city’s decision to cut curbside food-waste pickup from weekly to every other week. Back Bay resident Ali Foley said rats are chewing through car wiring, citing one neighbor’s $6,000 repair bill. An East Boston resident said a stalled residential development next door continues to draw rats despite repeated $25 tickets from ISD.

Several speakers backed Flynn’s long-standing call for a dedicated “rat czar” office, in place of the current approach that spreads the work across about 20 city departments. South End resident Robert Spadafora, in written testimony, urged the city to adopt “containerization,” meaning shared rodent-resistant bins where residents of dense blocks can drop off household trash. Allston resident Lexie Gross called for more public education and stronger enforcement against absentee and LLC-owned properties.

Flynn and the health commission differ on risk

Before the hearing, Flynn said the plan includes positive steps but falls short of recommendations made by Dr. Bobby Corrigan, the rodent expert who authored the city’s study, according to the Beacon Hill Times. Flynn said he disagrees with the Boston Public Health Commission’s finding that rats do not currently pose a high public health threat, and he cited a 2025 Tufts University study that found Boston rats carrying leptospirosis, a bacterial infection. As described in that report, the commission’s finding is that the city’s rodent problem does not currently pose a serious public health risk.

One South Boston resident testified that his son spent two weeks in the hospital this year with leptospirosis, while acknowledging there is no way to know where the infection was contracted, Universal Hub reported.

What happens next

The docket stays in the City Services Committee, which can hold more hearings or working sessions before reporting back to the full council. No vote on a rat czar office, new trash set-out times or containerization was scheduled as of Oct. 23. Boston hosted a national urban rat summit last month; see our coverage of the Boston rat summit and 311 complaints. Residents can check this fall’s collection schedule in our Boston leaf pickup and holiday trash guide, and report rats to the city through BOS:311.

A recording of the hearing is posted in the council’s Legistar meeting calendar.

Sources

• Universal Hub: Residents tell City Council about rats (Oct. 23, 2026)
• Beacon Hill Times: Councilor Flynn to hold hybrid hearing on Rodent Action Plan (Oct. 23, 2026)
• City of Boston: City Services Committee hearing on Docket #1804
• Boston City Council meeting calendar and video (Legistar)

Photo: Boston City Hall, by Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.