A pack of rats was seen bunking with a homeless man at a New York City subway station before scurrying off as people approached, horrifying footage shows.
The viral clip, posted on Jan. 8 by @six4bk78, shows a homeless man sleeping on the ground underneath a gray blanket with just his shoes exposed at the end of a subway platform.
Nearby straphangers can be heard giggling at the beginning of the video as a few rats scamper away from the blanket toward the subway tracks.
The man filming walks up to the sleeping form and says, “Yo.” Movement can be seen under the blanket as the man repeats, “Yo” a little louder, which finally stirs the homeless man.
As he pushes the blanket away, more than a dozen rats scurry away, the video, which had “Only in New York City Transit” and a rat emoji over it.
“Oh my God,” one person says before the video — which has racked up more than 7 million views on TikTok — cuts out.
The homeless man, for his part, seemed completely unbothered by the critters and did not react.
“What is being done about the rats and homeless crisis in New York?” text over the video reads.
Homelessness has been on the rise in the Big Apple despite Mayor Eric Adams’ efforts to get them off the streets, including police enforcement, sweeps, and outreach efforts.
The annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate survey counted 4,042 people sleeping on the streets or in the subways when the citywide tally was performed in Jan. 2023 — up from 3,439 in 2022, an 18% jump in just one year.
At the same time, Adams appears to be losing his multi-million dollar war on New York City’s vermin population even after hiring Kathleen Corradi at $155,000 yearly as the city’s first “rat czar” in April.
Rodent complaints have spiked nearly 8% across the five boroughs since he took office, according to city data.
In 2023, there were 41,748 rat sightings and other vermin-related complaints made through the city’s 311 hotline — up 1.5% from 41,120 a year before; up 7.6% percent from the 38,809 complaints fielded in 2021 during Bill de Blasio’s final year as mayor; and 32% more than the 31,644 complaints in 2019, a Post analysis of city records found.
Brooklyn — where Adams previously served as borough president — was home to more rodent complaints than any other NYC borough for the fifth straight year, with 15,769, up 5% from 15,032 in 2022.
