Kansas City is experiencing its first rent strike since 1980, with the KC Tenants union taking aim at properties that they claim to be uninhabitable.
The Kansas City Star reports that union members at Independence Towers and Quality Hill Towers are withholding over $60,000 in combined rent payments for the month of October while demanding rent caps, new ownership of the properties, and collectively bargained leases.
The tenants at Quality Hill Towers are citing burst pipes, unresolved sewage backup and pest infestations, and they claim the property’s owners have threatened them with evictions and rent hikes for complaining about living conditions. At the Independence Towers complex, residents said they are living with pest infestations, plumbing issues that created water damage and mold, a lack of heat and air conditioning and broken appliances. A faulty window latch in one apartment was partly blamed for a toddler falling to his death in July.
KC Tenants said their strike is also target the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) and Fannie Mae, which backed the loans used to purchase both properties. KC Tenants representatives met with FHFA and Fannie Mae executives on May 28, stating the property owners misused federal funds by allowing their buildings to go into disrepair. However, the union later issued a statement that it received “no satisfactory commitments in that meeting.”
“Every day is an opportunity for the targets to negotiate with us. We won’t stop until they do. Every first of the month is an opportunity for tenants to strike. More will join us until we win,” said Elliot West, a tenant on strike at Independence Towers, in a statement.
Photo: Quality Hill Towers, courtesy of the property’s website
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As long as the tenants are putting the full amount of rent into a trust account, I don’t see it as a problem to with hold rent.