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From NYDailyNews.com:

Water doesn’t trickle down from the right basin of Jeanette Davis‘ sink – it pours.

Puddles have formed under the kitchen cabinet of her W. 135th St. apartment, and the 58-year-old recently used a broom to evict a live rat from her neighbor’s mailbox.

“And this is what I go through every day,” she said.

But starting this winter, her building and its nine six-story companions along a historic row between Lenox and Seventh Aves. will be among the first affordable housing blocks in the country to undergo a green overhaul.

From solar panels on the roof to efficient boilers in the basement, the buildings are slated to be retrofitted with new energy-saving appliances and materials.

“We’re hoping our project will be a model for the entire country,” said Wendy Rowden, managing director for The Rose Smart Growth Investment Fund, which bought the buildings last year. The fund also got a15-year extension on the complex’s Section 8 status through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, she said.

Rowden also is hoping the buildings will benefit from federal stimulus money earmarked for such projects through the Green Retrofit Program – up to $3 million, she said.

Work on the 198 units is expected to begin by the end of the year.

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