EVERETT, Wash. —
Ratholes pock the ground and flies cover the outside John-Wessley Biggs' apartment building.
"It's horrible," he says. "I feel lower than dirt."
Biggs and his family were homeless before moving to the Family Tree low-income apartments 18 months ago.
The problems started in May when an old roller rink was torn down about a quarter mile away sending rats scurrying for new homes.
"There's been multiple occasions where I've walked my 5-year-old daughter down to go do laundry and she accidentally stepped on a rat," Biggs says. "Just a couple weeks ago I kicked one into my van by accident. In the summertime you couldn't go outside without covering your nose and mouth because of the stench."
Now that winter is here the rats are climbing into cars, making nests under the hood, chewing up wires and leaving a disgusting mess behind.
At one point Biggs brought his car into the shop for work.
"They wouldn't even touch my hood. They said there's so much rat feces and urine down there that it's a safety hazard," he says.
Biggs, a plumber's apprentice, worries about unexpected costs if a rat chews through a wire or a hose.
"Having an unexpected expense like that could set me back and make it so I can't even pay rent," he says.
Family Tree management says they've put out more than 70 traps and have exterminators come every week, but the vermin continue to plague their property.
The Snohomish County Health District has been out three times since August.
An email from the county states management is "staying on top" of the problem and it's "not a situation that's being ignored."
Carly Zellers, an environmental health specialist with Snohomish County wrote, "What you guys are doing is exactly what we would expect here at the Health District."
Family Tree has also reached out to Everett Code Enforcement for help but that still hasn't come.
As Biggs keeps counting ratholes he says his rent has been raised to $375 a month.
His home not feeling quite so comfortable anymore.
"I just want to move. I don't want to live like this anymore," he says. "We were promised this was a beautiful, wonderful place. So far it has been a living nightmare."