Courtesy of Connecticut Tenants Union

When mega-landlord Ocean Management told tenants at 195 and 199 Lenox St. that it was looking to sell the buildings, tenants across the two properties started talking. They discovered that the majority of tenants were on month-to-month leases set to expire around the same time — and none of them had received new leases from Ocean.

Fearing a mass eviction, the tenants organized under the guidance of the Connecticut Tenants Union, with all 11 units unanimously voting to unionize. On Nov. 17, residents of the Lenox Street properties filed with New Haven’s Fair Rent Commission to officially form the Lenox Tenant Union.

“Unions are so important in this moment when tenants face high rent increases or no-fault evictions that totally upend people’s lives, sometimes overnight,” Luke Melonakos-Harrison DIV ’23, the vice president of the Connecticut Tenants Union, said. “When there’s no legal protection to fall back on, what [tenants] fall back on is each other and the power of acting collectively.”

The union at Lenox Street is the fourth tenants’ union to form in New Haven. All of the city’s tenants unions — located at 311 Blake St., 1476 Chapel St., 1275-1291 Quinnipiac Ave. and now, Lenox Street — are at Ocean-owned properties.

Alisha Moore, one of the members of the Lenox union, recounted knocking on doors to talk with neighbors and create open communication about shared complaints with Ocean. When tenants met at one of the apartments in the building to discuss unionizing, a bilingual tenant interpreted between English- and Spanish-speaking residents to facilitate communication.

“This community — we’re a family,” Moore said. “[The possibility of eviction] feels like we’re being forced to break our family apart. When things don’t happen that we need to happen, we do it together. This has just brought our community closer together.”

Moore explained that residents of the Lenox Street properties did not receive notices regarding the renewal of their month-to-month leases, which sparked concerns among residents that they would all be asked to leave the property during the holiday season once their leases were up.

Continued miscommunication between Ocean and residents at Lenox Street exacerbated these concerns. According to Moore, two tenants at 199 Lenox St. had signed new leases on their apartments. However, when they accessed an online portal that Ocean uses for tenants to pay rent, they found that the dates on the lease were different from the dates on the lease they had signed.

Tenants feared that if their building switched ownership, they would either be evicted or face significant rent increases. Organizers from CT Tenants Union, a statewide tenants rights organization, helped residents through the unionization process. Mark Washington, a member of the Blake Street Tenants Union who helped organize the union at Lenox Street, said that many tenants feel they are “not being valued as human beings” by their landlords.

“What we did at CT Tenants Union was just help them collectively put their voices together and use that power to achieve their goals,” Washington said.

Poor living conditions also motivated tenants to unionize. According to Moore, multiple tenants had complained to Ocean about a mouse infestation that was never addressed. There were also safety concerns: Moore said the building’s fire escape was falling down, there were problems with lighting on the property at night, some doors had broken locks and there was a severe leak above her shower.

According to Moore, a Liveable City Initiative inspection revealed broken smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. She said that the poor conditions made her fearful for the health of her newborn son.

Rosa Ferraro-Santana, the Ward 13 alder representing Fair Haven Heights, said that tenants’ unions can help ensure that renters receive the living conditions they expect when they initially sign their leases. Ferraro-Santana identified patterns of neglect at properties owned by Ocean, one of the largest mega-landlords in the city. Ocean owns over 1,000 apartments across the city. 

Ocean’s attempt to sell 195 and 199 Lenox Ave. may also be part of a larger pattern. The New Haven Independent reported last summer that Ocean and Mandy Management, another mega-landlord in the city, have been selling properties, particularly in the Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods.

Tenants across Ocean properties have accused the landlord of poor living conditions and neglect, and Ocean has been fined multiple times in housing court for housing code violations. 

Ocean Management did not respond to a request for comment. 

While state law allows local governments to establish fair rent commissions, which handle complaints and prevent landlords from charging excessive rents, state law does not allow local governments to establish their own rent control laws, nor does the state have any laws limiting the amount that landlords can raise the rent.

“Part of the unionization process is people realizing that protections for tenants in this state are thin,” Melonakos-Harrison said. “Landlords can do a lot. They have a lot of unchecked power to displace people overnight and break up communities that have been neighbors for a long time.”

Moore said that the Lenox Street union hopes to contact the Fair Rent Commission as well, and explained that one of the primary goals of the union is ensuring that, if the properties are sold, the new landlord will provide tenants with new leases with fair rent prices. 

According to Wildaliz Bermudez, Executive Director of New Haven’s Fair Rent Commission, there is a precedent of tenants’ unions contacting the Fair Rent Commission. 

Blake Street Tenants Union filed retaliation complaints against Ocean in August after Ocean served eviction notices to 16 union members amid negotiations. The union withdrew the retaliation complaints after signing a memorandum of understanding with Ocean, where the landlord agreed to rescind the evictions and re-enter negotiations. The Chapel Street tenants union also filed a complaint with the Fair Rent Commission due to concerns about living conditions. The complaint was closed after Ocean made the requested repairs.

“There’s power in numbers,” Washington said. “We’re fighting power structures, systemic structures that have been in place for years … to form these unions and give that power back to the people is everything.”

Lenox Street is located in the city’s Fair Haven Heights neighborhood, east of the Quinnipiac River.