The Middletown Press (Middletown, 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, Melonakos-Harrison 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