By NOEL SIMS | New Haven Independent
A Blake Street apartment complex’s tenants are looking to make their union official — as the city’s Fair Rent Commission director works on getting out the word about the opportunities for collective renter power at City Hall.
That news came out of a workshop that Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermudez hosted at the Fair Haven branch public library on Grand Avenue Thursday night.
The purpose of the workshop was to explain the Fair Rent Commission’s state-empowered authority to eliminate excessive rents, and to talk through how tenants can file fair rent complaints. Bermudez also discussed how tenants’ unions can now legally register with the city and participate in fair rent investigations and hearings thanks to a law recently passed by the Board of Alders. (See below in this article for a full rundown of how a tenants’ union can register with the city.)
One of the few members of the public to attend Thursday’s workshop was Jessica Stamp, a renter and tenants’ union organizer at the 70-unit Beaver Hills apartment complex at 311 Blake St.
Stamp told Bermudez and this reporter that she and her neighbors are in the midst of renewing their efforts to make their tenants’ union official.
Stamp said at Thursday’s meeting that she and fellow 311 Blake tenants’ union organizers previously passed around a petition six months ago to create a union at the Ocean Management-owned property. She said that petition was subsequently misplaced — so Stamp is now collecting signatures again.
She came out to the Fair Rent Commission’s workshop on Thursday to hear directly from the city agency’s director about how to file complaints now that tenants’ unions have a legal path towards recognition in New Haven.
The original move to unionize came after Ocean Management took ownership of the building at the start of this year, she said. Stamp said the conditions in the building plummeted as the tenants were hit with the threat of rent hikes. (Click here for a previous story and to read Ocean’s then-property manager’s responses about how rents did not increase and all tenants would be put on month-to-month leases.) Stamp claimed on Thursday the problems at 311 Blake — including piles of construction-related garbage and a mice infestation — have only gotten worse over the past six month.
“I hear you,” said Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermudez, listening intently to Stamp’s complaints.
Bermudez began the workshop at the Fair Haven Library by explaining how tenants and tenants’ unions, like Stamp’s, could file complaints with the Fair Rent Commission. She explained that even with the unions, complaints would have to be filed individually. This is because after the FRC receives the complaint, the Livable City Initiative conducts an inspection, which must be done on a unit-by-unit basis.
A key change following the ordinance amendment to recognize tenants’ unions is that individuals may now be represented by a union representative when they go to the FRC, where before they could only be represented by themself or a lawyer — often “too complicated or unaffordable,” said Bermudez.
Having been the executive director for nine months, Bermudez told attendees about three of her goals for the FRC.
She would like to publish an annual report with data about the location of complaints and the demographics of tenants.
She would like to fill the four empty commissioner seats (anyone with a familiarity and passion for housing issues is encouraged to apply).
And finally, she would like to reach tenants in every part of the city. “We need to meet people where they are,” Bermudez said, “whether that is at the library, in their churches, or anywhere else.”
Bermudez was optimistic that unionizing would help tenants achieve fair treatment by landlords. “Tenants will be able to come together,” she told the Independent. “They will be better protected from retaliation.”