Mice running throughout the kitchen, rooms filled with broken furniture, moldy mattresses and cigarette burns on floors and walls, are some of the conditions alleged at the Dover Woods care facility in Toms River, N.J., according to an article on the Asbury Park Press website.

Dover Woods, which houses elderly and disabled residents, those recovering from drug addiction, homeless people and those who have been discharged from state psychiatric hospitals, is the largest residential care facility in the state. 

Residential health care facilities like Dover Woods are sometimes confused with boarding homes, the article said. Unlike boarding homes, residential care facilities must provide access to nursing care for those who live there. The facility also cannot restrict residents from leaving the building. 

Former Dover cook, Neil Nunez, said that the facility is infested with mice, which occasionally ran across his feet while he was cooking and left their droppings throughout the building.

He said some rooms had moldy mattresses and broken box springs, while others were infested with bed bugs.

Nunez said the food served to residents was of poor quality. Once, he was told to serve cucumbers that were moldy. Ground beef was paste-like and clumpy, while milk was sometimes sour. An old stove allowed grease to accumulate and sparked three grease fires during his time there, Nunez said.

Read the article.