New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Tenant unions on the rise in Connecticut
WILLIMANTIC — On Nov. 22, Ara Wilnas said, she lost heat in her apartment at 480 Main St. in Willimantic.
She reported the problem that day to building manager Barbara Cuadrado, according to copies of correspondence Wilnas shared with Hearst Connecticut Media. By Nov. 29, Wilnas still did not have heat, she said, and an email arrived from Cuadrado saying that a part needed to fix the system had yet to arrive.
In all, it took two weeks and multiple follow-up emails to get the heat back up and running, according to Wilnas and the correspondence she shared.
For Wilnas, who had already been talking to neighbors about unionization, the heating issue was the last straw. After that, she felt determined to get a tenants’ union off the ground.
Wilnas and her fellow organizers hope the newlyestablished Windham Mills Tenant Union will help them advocate for their neighbors, improve building maintenance and empower residents to speak out. They represent one of the newest groups in a statewide movement of renters who see unionizing as a way to improve living conditions and push forward housing reforms.
Over the past two years, tenant unions have popped up in cities like New Haven and Hartford, and in towns like Windsor and Hamden. Luke Melonakos-Harrison, an organizer with the Connecticut Tenants Union (CTTU), estimated roughly 10 tenant unions are now established in the state; a handful of others are in the process of getting started, he said.
That number is far more than existed in Connecticut in early 2021 when, Melonakos-Harrison said, a tenants’ union formed in Windsor. As far as housing advocates are aware, it was the first such union formed in the state in recent years, he said.
The CTTU, a volunteer organization founded in 2021 that provides support and resources to tenants wishing to unionize, has been a driving force behind the movement.
Asked what issues he believes spurred the wave of organizing, MelonakosHarrison named rising rents, “negligent landlords who allow properties to fall into disrepair” and fear among tenants who worry landlords will retaliate against them if they file complaints with code enforcement agencies.
People realized “we have to do something about this, or we’re not going to have a place to live,” Melonakos-Harrison said.
A union takes shape
Wilnas, Marie Anne Beauchesne and Jay Osborne represent the three Willimantic residents spearheading the Windham Mills Tenant Union. They spoke with Hearst Connecticut Media about how and why they came together to organize their neighbors.
Beauchesne lives in the same building as Wilnas — 480 Main Street, also called Artspace. Osborne lives next door at 560 Main Street, or 560 on Main.
The buildings share Cuadrado as their property manager, according to the tenants.
They also have the same landlord.
Windham town records indicate two different limited liability companies own the properties. But the firms share a mailing address and have the same principal members, Abraham Silberstein and Burech Glauber, according to state business filings.
Osborne has lived at 560 Main Street since July 2020, he said. In 2021, he founded a tenants’ association at the building in hopes of encouraging management to address maintenance issues, he said.
He recalled meeting Beauchesne one day while she was outside picking up trash near her building.
“When I moved in, there was so much garbage all over the place,” said Beauchesne, a retired nurse. “I took it upon myself to pick up the garbage.”
The two got to talking and, thanks to a connection at the CTTU, Osborne learned they could form a union across both buildings, he said.
After going door-todoor to hear their neighbors’ concerns and meeting with the CTTU in the fall, the Windham Mills Tenant Union had its first official in-person meeting Feb. 13, Wilnas said.
All three organizers have raised concerns about conditions in the buildings; Wilnas and Beauchesne also filed housing complaints in Windham Town Hall. (Willimantic is considered a “city suburb” of Windham and falls under Windham town government.)
A reporter left multiple voicemail and email messages seeking comment from Cuadrado, the property manager, both by phone and email.
Comprehensive requests for comment listing tenants’ concerns also were sent to the email addresses on file for the LLCs that own the properties, and a voicemail was left for an attorney representing the landlords. None of the inquiries were returned by Friday evening.
Town’s response
Beauchesne’s housing complaints, as well as those of several other tenants filed in January, list issues ranging from a nonfunctioning buzzer system to overfilled dumpsters to rats and roaches at 480 Main Street, Windham Town Hall records show.
The complaints were a result of the organizers’ efforts, Wilnas said. Code enforcement officials told union organizers that receiving complaints would help them better understand what was going on in the buildings, she said.
So far, Wilnas feels the unionization efforts have sparked some success: while she knows of residents who made individual complaints in the past, she said, she felt she, Beauchesne and Osborne were taken seriously when they went to speak to code enforcement officials early this year.
Weeks later, officials conducted inspections of the two Main Street buildings. Keith Podrebartz, Windham’s new code enforcement manager, said he did not know whether the complaints prompted the inspections.
Such inspections occur regularly — in fact, town reports say the visits occurred as part of the “routine inspection cycle” rather than at the occupants’ request —— but Podrebartz was aware that multiple complaints were recently submitted, he said.
Regardless, town officials cited the properties for numerous code violations.
At 560 Main Street, they found broken exhaust fans, sink drainage problems and lighting issues in multiple apartments, a Jan. 23 notice of violation shows.
And on Feb. 15, an inspector at 480 Main Street found roaches in two apartments, “blight, mattresses and litter throughout the property,” rodent
droppings in a storage room and the “chirping sounds of dying smoke detectors on the second floor,” according to the inspection report.
The report also describes water damage in the laundry room walls, a leaking pipe in the lobby and a step in need of repair by a building entrance.
In one apartment, inspectors could not verify that a smoke detector had been fixed and issued a fine of $100 a day until the problem was resolved, the report shows.
While the property manager had said the detector was repaired, according to Podrebartz, the town issued the fine because inspectors were not granted access to confirm her report.
Podrebartz gave the property advance notice of the inspection and asked someone to meet him so that he could enter apartments when tenants were home, he said. No one did, he said, adding that the town has not been getting “cooperation” from the property manager.
“We provide a service to people. We’re not trying to catch people. We’re trying to work with people,” Podrebartz said.
The tenants have been helpful in providing information the building, he said.
Unions’ successes
Membership in the Windham Mills Tenant Union is still small, according to Wilnas, who said the group had 10 members as of March 6. However, additional tenants have expressed interest in joining, she said.
Some residents are hesitant
to join due to fears of eviction, she said, and hopes the union’s numbers will grow as people get used to the idea.
Osborne, who faced an eviction complaint in the fall, also says there is a lot of fear among residents.
The Frog Bridge Development Company, LLC, which owns 560 Main Street, filed eviction papers against Osborne on Nov. 7, according to Windham judicial district superior court records. The complaint alleged Osborne failed to pay rent pursuant to his lease.
But Osborne, who filed copies of multiple rent checks with the court, won the case. Then, on Jan. 4, a judge issued an
order siding with Osborne and dismissing the complaint.
Osborne believes he was targeted for eviction because of his outspokenness and his efforts to organize tenants, he said.
Once the Windham Mills Tenant Union is better established, it plans to seek official recognition through a town ordinance, Beauchesne said.
Elsewhere in the state, tenant unions have grown to have hundreds of members and successfully lobbied for local legislation.
The Hamden Tenants Union, which consists primarily of renters in an apartment complex called Seramonte Estates, reached over 250 members
in November, a union official said at the time.
The union helped some tenants win rent freezes and successfully pushed the town’s Legislative Council to update Hamden’s fair rent ordinance.
In September, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker signed an ordinance giving tenant unions a role in the city’s rent complaint processes.
One New Haven union was able to get the property owner to complete longawaited repairs, according to Melonakos-Harrison, the CTTU organizer.
Brian Smith, a union leader among Windsor Housing Authority residents, sees their efforts as a success: after tenants organized,
the housing authority underwent a management change, Smith said, and living conditions improved.
Meanwhile, Hartford set aside $750,000 to help tenants bring legal action against landlords over housing conditions and another $1 million for emergency repairs at neglected properties.
“If tenants are not having buildings repaired, the city will pay for repairs and then bill the landlord,” said Stefan Keller, a CTTU representative who works with the Hartford Tenants Union, which includes residents across multiple properties.
The union had its first meeting last spring, according to Keller, who said its first public action took place at a City Council meeting in October when “over a dozen tenants shared their stories...and really kind of demanded that the city council take action.”
Hartford’s decision to set aside money for repairs came two months later.
On a statewide level, however, the tenants’ rights movement has not been as successful as some hoped.
Early this month, state legislators dropped a proposal that would have limited annual rent increases.
Cap the Rent CT, a campaign that pushed for the legislation, issued a statement expressing disappointment over the outcome.
“Without a solution that directly addresses the problem (of rising rents), tenants will continue to be forced to leave their communities and uproot their lives,” the statement says. “Connecticut needs housing stability for all to create and maintain safe, healthy communities and prosperity for the state of Connecticut.”