The Hamden Fair Rent Commission has voted against a 42% rent increase after the new Hamden Tenant Union pushed back against it.
The decision by the commission prevents Seramonte Apartments from raising the rent $800 on one of its tenants.
“We have power, and we have influence,” said Greta Blau, a founding member of the union. “I think we’re going to do a lot more to help people in this town so I’m really happy with the progress.”
Blau said the Seramonte landlords were raising rents between $200 and $1,500. They formed the union to lobby on behalf of renters to stop the increases.
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They got a bit stronger this week when local legislators officially recognized “tenant unions” in an amended town ordinance.
“They can file a consolidated complaint so if it’s a common theme – similar rent increases – they can come together and file one form,” said Laurie Sweet, an at-large member of the Hamden Legislative Council.
It streamlines the complaint process, and it amplifies the voices of tenants who may not know what to do or feel like they’re being heard.
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“We’ll have people come to us with an individual concern, and then two or three weeks later with the same concern down the hall,” said Justin Farmer, president pro tempore of the town council.
“I think it’s extremely important that we are formally recognizing that tenant unions exist in Hamden and they’re popping up all over the state,” Sweet said.
Luke Melonakos-Harrison is with the Connecticut Tenant Union. He’s helped organize some of the 10 new unions statewide.
“It's because of rising rents and deteriorating conditions,” he said. “Those are the two most common problems that spur people to organize.”
The first Connecticut Tenant Union meeting was in December 2021 when rental prices were skyrocketing. They’ve since helped establish local tenant unions and lobby for the best interest of tenants.
“I mean, we've done everything from sort of public actions to shed light on the situation and kind of put public pressure on landlords and management companies,” said Melonakos-Harrison. “We've done a lot of work with fair rent commissions.”
Blau and the Hamden Tenant Union pushed for the Fair Rent Commission to be reactivated. Farmer said the commission was only receiving about two complaints a year. Now, Blau said they’re looking at other concerns for the commission, like parking.
Tenants say their cars would be towed for small things like parking slightly crooked or visitors staying longer than the eight-hour limit.
“So, a lot of families had their older children with vehicles stop coming to spend nights because they were worried about their cars getting towed,” said Melissa Anderson, a member of the union at Seramonte.
She adds that when cars are towed, people have tough decisions to make about whether to get their car back or pay the rent.
Recently, the group successfully lobbied against an $800 rent increase on behalf of a tenant.
“We took them to the Fair Rent Commission, and they won getting no rent increase at all,” Blau said. “The $800 increases, these are single mothers, some of them are elderly, some of them are disabled. It’s really not taken into consideration at all when their raising the rents.”
Blau and Melonakos-Harrison say they’re working toward a rent increase cap in the state after they say rents have jumped 20% in two years, causing chaos for renters.
“Connecticut Tenants Union as a whole, as a statewide body, is pushing for now a 3% cap on rents, because leaving the question of what's a fair rent increase or not, up to a handful of individuals of volunteers to just adjudicate on a case-by-case basis, is not a sufficient response to the systemic problems that we're seeing,” Melonakos-Harrison said.
Seramonte has filed an appeal in court against the Hamden Fair Rent Commission’s decision. NBC Connecticut reached out to its attorneys for comment and did not hear back.
