A New Day Sought For Tenants

Thomas Breen photos

City officials join Quinnipiac Gardens tenants and tenant union organizers for Thursday press conference. According to LCI, Quinnipiac Gardens has no outstanding housing code violations.

(Updated) The mayor and top City Hall housing officials traveled to an apartment complex on the east side of town to promote a newly proposed law empowering tenant unions — and to encourage renters to band together to advocate for fair rent and safe living conditions.

That was the message at a press conference that Mayor Justin Elicker hosted Thursday morning in the back parking lot of the Quinnipiac Gardens apartment complex at 1 Quinnipiac Ct.

Standing alongside Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermúdez, Livable City Initiative (LCI) Executive Director Arlevia Samuel and Deputy Director Mark Wilson, city Assistant Corporation Counsel Blake Sullivan, and several members and organizers with the Quinnipiac Gardens Tenant Union, Elicker touted an ordinance amendment that his administration recently submitted to the Board of Alders for review and potential adoption.

That proposed law change would formally recognize tenant unions and give them a voice in investigations by the Fair Rent Commission. (See more below for a detailed explanation of what the law would do if passed by the Board of Alders.)

Mayor Elicker (center).

At Thursday’s press conference, the city officials and tenant advocates made clear that this proposal is about more than simply formalizing a new tenant union legal process when it comes to fair rent and retaliatory complaints. It’s also about encouraging more tenants to form unions across the city.

Tenants, individually, they have power,” Elickler said. But as a group, they have way more power. And by facilitating that group, communicating with each other and having some sort of legal definition and legal authority can dramatically improve not only the situations for those tenants, but for other multi-unit properties across the city.”

A lot of landlords in New Haven are good landlords,” the mayor said. But for those landlords that are not, you’re on notice that people can organize and really fight back when these properties are not well maintained.”

Thomas Breen file photo

Fair Rent Director Bermúdez.

Bermúdez agreed. She said that this proposal has come in part out of the emergence of a lot more tenants’ unions around the City of New Haven. This is happening at a rapid rate, and individuals are coming together collectively to be heard and also to find solutions when they have an increase in rental charges and also when they have unsafe and unhealthy conditions.”

She said that this proposal would not only give tenants’ unions a formal role in Fair Rent Commission investigations, but would also bring together landlords, tenants, and tenants’ union representatives in a city-mediated forum” to discuss rent and living condition concerns as part of the Fair Rent Commission process.

Quinnipiac Gardens tenant Jacqueline Swell-Freelove.

This is a good first step, but there’s more work that the city needs to do to stand up against bad landlords,” said Jacqueline Swell-Freelove, a Quinnipiac Gardens Tenant Union member who has lived at the east side apartment complex for 18 years. 

If other properties get together with us, I think we can do a good job with forming unions all over New Haven, so people can get better quality management in their apartments.”

DSA organizer Luke Melonakos-Harrison.

Luke Melonakos-Harrison, a member of the local Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter and organizer with the Quinnipiac Gardens Tenant Union, said that he and his fellow local lefty organizers are currently involved with three different tenants’ unions across the city.

Having this course of action through the Fair Rent Commission is an important way to enable tenants to feel like they have some avenue to protect their housing and not be displaced and run out of their homes,” he said about the city’s tenant union law proposal.

What role does DSA plan in the current wave of local tenant union organizing?

Melonakos-Harrison said that DSA sees itself as helping tenants transfer knowledge” from an older generation that may have been members in tenant associations in the 1970s and 1980s, to a newer generation of tenants looking to advocate for themselves collectively today.

He said DSA helps connect tenants with the relevant city housing officials, trains them on how to file complaints with the Fair Rent Commission and LCI, and generally imparts knowledge about how tenants can work together to collectively advocate for better, safer, more affordable living conditions.

A lot of that has faded over the decades,” he said. A big part of what we do is reintroduce the idea that has a history in Connecticut.”

LCI Director Arlevia Samuel.

The location of Thursday’s press conference was a 71-unit apartment complex owned by Pike International. The tenant union first formed at this complex last summer over concerns about rodents, broken appliances, mold, water damage, and increasing rents.

On Thursday, LCI’s Arlevia Samuel said that this apartment complex has no outstanding housing code violations. An August 2021 inspection by city housing code officials found 17 violations, she said. All of those issues were fixed by management.

Click here to read a detailed response from the property manager in November about all of the fixes that the landlord had made to the property, as well as his general response to the formation of the tenant union.

See below for an earlier version of this article. And click on the video below to watch Thursday’s press conference in full.

Fair Rent Seeks Voice For Tenant Unions

Broadening City Hall’s support for struggling renters, the Elicker Administration has proposed updating city law to recognize tenant unions and give them a voice in investigations by the Fair Rent Commission.

Those changes are included in a proposed ordinance amendment that was listed as a communication on the agenda for Monday night’s full Board of Alders meeting. 

The proposed law change now advance to an aldermanic committee for a public hearing and review, before returning to the full Board of Alders for a potential debate and final vote.

The proposed ordinance amendment is the biggest step taken by the Elicker Administration so far towards recognizing and empowering tenants looking to band together to advocate for lower rents and better living conditions. It comes as New Haven rents, by one estimate, have increased by 19 percent over the past year, a small number of megalandlords have dramatically increased their control over the city’s low-income housing market, and tenants across New Haven — with the help of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) activists — have responded by forming tenant unions.

The proposed changes also come several months after the mayor first appointed Wildaliz Bermúdez to serve as the executive director of the Fair Rent Commission, a state-empowered local body charged with eliminating excessive rental charges while also adjudicating housing-code and living-condition disputes between landlords and tenants.

Having the Fair Rent Commission recognize and accept complaints from tenant unions were two of the specific policy goals advocated for at a November 2021 City Hall protest held by a Quinnipiac Meadows tenant union and its local lefty organizers. 

While many landlords work hard to provide high-quality housing for their tenants, there are some mega-landlords that create unacceptable living environments for their residents,” Mayor Justin Elicker told the Independent in an email comment on Wednesday. This proposal will help support tenants organizing in a tenants’ union and empower them to collectively engage the Fair Rent Commission in investigating and assisting with any complaints at the property to ensure fairness for all involved.”

Bermúdez agreed. With the increase of tenants’ unions in New Haven, this proposed legislation is an important first step in officially recognizing tenants’ unions and identifying how to receive and review their complaints within the purview of the Fair Rent Commission’s authority,” she wrote in an email comment on Wednesday. While state law allows for tenants’ unions, this proposal places New Haven as one of the first cities in Connecticut to formally include municipal language to define tenants’ unions and provide a space for them to bring their concerns before the Fair Rent Commission while also recognizing the due process rights of landlords. Importantly, this proposed legislation would also align the criteria that can be considered by the Fair Rent Commission in determining whether or not a rental charge is excessive with the criteria outlined in Connecticut General Statutes.”

Click here to read the city’s proposal in full.

What The Law Change Would Do

City Corporation Counsel Patricia King.

As described by city Corporation Counsel Patricia King in a June 1 letter written to the Board of Alders in support of the proposed legislation, the amendments include three discrete parts:

• New definitions for tenants’ union” and tenants’ union representative”;

• A codification of the role of tenants’ unions in the Fair Rent Commission processes;

• And the addition of four criteria to the standards pertaining to rental charges” to be considered by the Fair Rent Commission, thereby bringing that local list of considerations in line with the latest state law.

This proposed amendment would recognize tenants’ unions and identify roles for the unions within the Fair Rent Commission investigation and complaint process,” King wrote in that June 1 letter.

The language of the proposed amendment itself offers further insight into why the Elicker Administration has now put forward this proposed law update.

The first whereas” clause of the proposed amendment reads: WHEREAS, membership in a tenants’ union’ may provide a defense against retaliatory evictions under Connecticut General Statutes § 47a-20”. 

Another whereas” clause reads: WHEREAS, there are self-declared tenants’ unions’ being formed by residents of the City of New Haven”.

The next two read: WHEREAS, pursuant to City of New Haven Ordinances § 12 3/4 ‑1, the Fair Rent Commission exists for the purpose of controlling and eliminating excessive rental charges on residential property within the City of New Haven; and WHEREAS, the Fair Rent Commission of the City of New Haven has the authority to recognize and regulate tenants’ unions consistent with the powers granted to by Connecticut General Statutes §7 – 148b, et seq.”

Tenant Union, Defined

So. Under this proposed law, what would be the local legal definition of a tenants’ union? And how would they be allowed to interact with the Fair Rent Commission?

Click here to read the proposal in full.

The Elicker Administration’s proposal would define tenants’ union” as: an organization whose membership is comprised of the tenants living in a housing accommodation containing ten (10) or more separate rental units sharing common ownership and located on the same parcel or adjoining parcels of land, and that has been created by agreement of a majority of the tenants listed as lessees within the housing accommodation. Such organization must be registered with the commission to participate in any studies, investigations, and hearings. Tenants living in an owner-occupied housing accommodation may not organize a tenants’ union.”

The proposed amendment would then define a tenants’ union representative” as: the person designated by the members of a tenants’ union to represent it in connection with any studies, investigations, and hearings involving that union or its members. Such person is not required to be a tenant or resident of the housing accommodation.

The proposal would then create a new section of the local Fair Rent Commission law, dubbed City Ordinance § 12 ¾‑9, that details how tenants’ unions may interact with the Fair Rent Commission.

The commission recognizes the right of tenants to organize tenants’ unions consistent with this chapter and the commission’s rules, regulations, and procedures,” that section reads. At the written request of a tenants’ union representative, the commission may, after study and investigation, make findings regarding the housing accommodation of that tenants’ union, consistent with any of the standards pertaining to rental charges in § 12 ¾‑8. The commission may rely on such findings when reaching a decision on a complaint filed by a member of that tenants’ union. The commission may also refer those findings to other city departments or commissions responsible for regulating housing accommodations within the city. The commission shall promulgate rules and regulations governing the activities of tenants’ unions before the commission.”

Finally, the proposal would add four criteria to City Ordinance § 12 ¾‑8 — Standards pertaining to rental charges.”

Those are the criteria that the Fair Rent Commission are required to consider when determining whether or not a rental charge is excessive.” King said in her letter to the alders that the proposed addition of these four criteria will bring the city’s list in line with current state law.

The four proposed new criteria are listed below as numbers 10 through 13. If adopted, all 13 criteria to be considered by the Fair Rent Commission would include:

(1) Rents charged for the same number of rooms in other housing accommodations within the city;

(2) The sanitary conditions in the housing accommodations in question;

(3) The number of bathtubs, or showers, flush water closets, kitchen sinks, and lavatory basins available to the occupant thereof;

(4) Services, furniture, furnishings and equipment supplied within said housing accommodations by the landlord;

(5) Size and number of bedrooms and number of whole bathroom accommodations;

(6) Repairs, including the cost of same, necessary to make such housing accommodation comply with the minimum standards required by the City of the City of New Haven;

(7) Compliance of the housing accommodation with the ordinances of the City of New Haven and the General Statutes and regulations of the State of Connecticut relating to health and safety;

(8) Amount of taxes and overhead expenses of the landlord;

(9) Income of the tenant and availability of other accommodations for him and his immediate family;

(10) The availability of utilities;

(11) Damages done to the premises by the tenant, caused by other than ordinary wear and tear;

(12) The amount and frequency of increases in rental charges;

(13) Whether, and the extent to which, the income from an increase in rental charges has been or will be reinvested in improvements to the accommodations.

Individual Complaints, Individual Rulings

Bermúdez, at a recent Fair Rent Commission virtual meeting.

The Independent asked Bermúdez if this proposed law change would allow for tenants who are members of tenant unions to file collective complaints with the Fair Rent Commission. Or will each complaint still have to be filed by each individual tenant? 

Bermúdez replied that the latter will still be true: Complaints will still have to be filed on an individual tenant basis, and each ruling from the Fair Rent Commission will apply only to that individual complaint.

Under the proposed legislation, tenants’ unions would be recognized and empowered to collectively engage and assist the Fair Rent Commission in its investigative function into proposed rent increases and conditions at the property,” she told the Independent.

Each tenant would still need to file an individual complaint and each complaint would still be ruled on individually, as conditions often vary from unit to unit, however, members of the tenants’ union would have the added ability to collectively present their concerns via an appointed representative to their landlord and to the Fair Rent Commission through a supplemental process. This will help inform the Commission’s review, understanding of conditions at the property and investigation – and, ultimately, assist the Commission in ruling on each individual complaint as well as future complaints at that property. Designated tenants’ union representatives may also assist individual complainants in the presentation of their complaints. In addition, members of the tenants’ union would have protection from any inappropriate retaliatory evictions. The Commission may also wish to refer unsafe or unhealthy living conditions discovered as the result of these investigations to the appropriate City department.”

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