Nora Grace-Flood photos
At Wednesday's anti-eviction tenants union rally.
Tenant Jessica Stamp: Union members know "we are not alone."
City officials, union advocates, and concerned residents gathered outside of Ocean Management’s Whitney Avenue offices to rally against recent action taken by the landlord to evict 15 members of a growing tenants union — and to promise to take action themselves if Ocean doesn’t reconsider.
That’s after a quarter of those living at the megalandlord’s Elizabeth Apartments complex at 311 Blake St. found notices to quit taped to their doors last week, the first step taken so far in a mass move to kick out tenants based on “lapse of time,” which is the legal term for expired leases that a landlord chooses not to renew.
The protest — which took place on Wednesday afternoon outside of 101 Whitney Ave. — also comes after Ocean reportedly attempted to raise rent by 30 percent for dozens of tenants living at the property, which members of the Blake Street Tenant Union sought to fight. The union submitted a letter signed by 95 percent of the complex’s residents asking to collectively bargain with their landlord, but after three meetings with Ocean Management representatives, threats of evictions started popping up.
The residents to receive those notices are part of New Haven’s first legally recognized tenants union. Now, they are arguing the coming evictions are retaliation against the union for pushing back against the rent raises.
Landlord Shmuel Aizenberg did not respond to requests for comment concerning the union’s claims.
Organizer Luke Melanakos-Harrison: “This shows the worst side of a landlord’s abuses of power.”
“That type of eviction is perfectly legal,” housing organizer Luke Melanakos-Harrison said of lapse of time evictions, explaining that since Ocean Management purchased the property at the end of 2021, many current tenants transitioned from annual to month-to-month leases under the new owner. Many remained without leases for almost two years, despite reported efforts to work out contracts with their landlord.
“It’s legal to come home and find out that you’re supposed to uproot your whole life by the first of the month or have an eviction proceeding on your record, which then makes it extremely difficult to go and rent your next apartment,” he said in critique of state eviction law. But even so, he added, in the case of Blake Street, “this is blatantly illegal, because it’s clearly retaliatory to the union.”
“This shows the worst side of a landlord’s abuses of power,” he stated. “Filing no-fault evictions against 15 members of the tenant union simply for forming a union and advocating for themselves.”
The complex has 70 apartments total. Union members told this reporter that around 45 of those apartments are currently filled, and that there are around 45 members in the tenants union.
Tenant Sarah Giovanniello: "Five years from now, will any of us be able to live in our own city?"
Tenant Jessica Stamp recalled finding the notice to quit last weekend. “I was just chilling in my apartment doing lazy Saturday morning things, when I hear something very quiet in my front vestibule,” she said. She went to the door and found a piece of paper stating that “you never had the right or privilege to occupy” her apartment and that if she did not leave the property by Sept. 1, management would start to evict her.
She said the story behind the notice went back to June, when a neighbor first called her to report they’d been hit with a 20 to 30 percent rent increase, which would mean paying an extra $200 each month. Stamp herself was never informed of such a steep rent hike for her own place, but continued to receive phone calls from other neighbors complaining of the same news. The union helped each tenant file complaints with the Fair Rent Commission, which would protect them from paying any rent increase until the board determined whether or not it was just.
However, Stamp said that after Ocean got word that those complaints had been filed, the landlord stopped imposing any additional rent increases. “Ocean stopped interacting with us entirely,” she remembered.
Until that moment, Stamp said there had been forward momentum with the landlord concerning the crafting of new leases for tenants who’d lived on the property for years and who wanted to stay. But then those conversations also halted, and notices to quit showed up.
“The next day we had a meeting,” Stamp said of the union. More individuals who hadn’t been part of the union showed up, ready to join forces. Over the course of 24 hours, 75 percent of the complex signed onto a letter requesting that Ocean cease the eviction proceedings.
Tenant Sarah Giovanniello also spoke up, saying that after living at the Elizabeth Apartments for three years, she felt “depressed, unsettled and uncertain” upon receiving threat of eviction.
“I can’t afford to live on my own anymore, even with a raise I know I’m gonna get in January,” Giovanniello said, citing increasingly exorbitant rents all around New Haven. “Among us are teachers, social workers, hospital workers — we’re representative of the types of people who are the backbone of the community,” she said of those facing eviction at Blake Street. “None of us are fighting because we feel like making our landlords’ lives more difficult. We’re fighting because we have no choice.”
Mayor Justin Elicker, Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate, and Kooper Caraway, the executive director of the Service Employees International Union Connecticut State Council, were among several leaders to join those tenants in condemning Ocean’s behavior Wednesday. Pro-union organizers in areas other than housing, such as rideshare drivers, stood in a sign-holding crowd of solidarity behind the speakers.
“When I signed into law the first state of Connecticut tenants union ordinance, I didn’t know quite how powerful it would be,” Elicker said. “If, let me say when, this is successful,” he said of the Blake Street tenants’ push back, “you will have shown just how much power you have by organizing.”
The Fair Rent Commission is scheduling a retaliatory hearing as tenants file more complaints no longer just about rent, but about the latest series of evictions. Elicker said to Ocean: “Pull back on the evictions, because it’s a lot easier than going to court and the Fair Rent Commission.”
At the end of those speeches, tenants pinned a petition signed by three quarters of the complex demanding Ocean Management halt the eviction proceedings by the end of the day and return to negotiations regarding secure leases, stable rents, quality and timely repairs, and non-interference with union activities by the next morning.
“Ocean Management must resume good faith negotiations immediately to avoid legal action and tenant union escalation in response.”
People peering out from the window of Ocean's locked offices.
Meanwhile, apparent employees of Ocean Management peered out the window of their second floor office at the scene. However, the door to the offices were locked; a message from Ocean Management taped on the door next to the union petition stated that tenant visits must be scheduled by appointment in advance.
After the conference, tenants lingered outside the office, talking with one another about what next steps to take depending on Ocean’s response.
“I’ve thought about moving before but I don’t want to,” tenant Logan McBride commented. “I’ve lived there for a long time.”
Stamp agreed. “I can afford my rent, it’s close to my work, and my favorite delivery places are within a couple of miles.”
Plus, she said, “We already have this union, we have this group of people. These relationship are build and I don’t want to lose them.”
No comment for the landlord?
What are the current rents being paid by the tenants that aren’t being renewed? The article states Ocean is trying to raise rents by 20% to 30%, or the equivalent of $200. This would suggest the tenants are paying rents of $700-$1000/month. Those would be very low rents for that neighborhood.
Is Ocean doing any improvements to the apartments? Also, what are the new rentals coming in at? Is Ocean offering to compromise between current market and what tenants have been paying? Are they trying to take long-term tenants to full market? Above full market? Inflation has gone up by 20-25% over the past four years. What is the history of past rent increases?
It’s very hard to have an opinion on the egregiousness of this issue without perspective built on a full set of details.