Elected officials in Manhattan held what they call a "rat academy" Monday night to address the rodent problem they see in their neighborhood. NY1's Lori Chung filed this report.

"We're talking about rats that look like cats," one resident of Elliot Chelsea Houses said. “You can stand in front of the building—it can be four…five o’clock in the afternoon—you'll see them coming back and forth like it's nobody's business."

They weren't hard to find. Residents say rats have made themselves at home, becoming a far too common sight this summer.

People filled the community center here for what organizers called a “rat academy,” with health officials educating residents and property owners on how fight a problem plaguing west side neighborhoods.

"We've gotten a really high number from the west 20's in Chelsea. That's where the largest number come from. We also get complaints from in Greenwich Village and Hell's Kitchen as well," said Councilman Corey Johnson.

The informational brought out community gardeners who are trying to figure out why their urban are turning into rodent havens.

 "Anything that has fresh healthy soil becomes vulnerable to rat burrowing," one woman said.

 "People are freaked out of doing their gardening this year because of the rat problem," another neighborhood resident said. "They eat flowers. They eat veggies."

They also eat food left in the garbage. Some at the session were given trash bins designed to keep rats out but here at the Elliot Chelsea Houses, where those burrows were in abundance, some are wondering how much worse their rat problem is going to get.

 "I see that the rats are getting bigger and there's more of them," one resident said.

Health officials suggest getting one of those rat resistant trash bins if you can, since rats can easily chew through garbage bags, and need relatively little food and water to thrive.