“Sit down and negotiate,” tenants said.
On Wednesday, the Lenox Street tenant union gathered outside of the Ocean Management offices in New Haven to call for a change.
“Ocean, ocean don’t let us down. New Haven is a union town,” tenants said.
The group of tenants and advocates are asking the management company to negotiate stable rent prices, long-term leases and quality repairs.
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“They first approached Ocean in the beginning of February with a petition delivery and have been waiting for a response for six weeks,” CT Tenants Union Vice President Luke Melonakos-Harrison said.
On the picket line was Alisha Moore, who has been a tenant for more than six years. Moore claims to have had issues with mold in the bathroom and non-working smoke alarms.
“We have had infestation with rodents, garbage not being taken out, so that is attracting rodents, maintenance as far as plumbing issues,” Lenox Street Tenant Union member Alisha Moore said.
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Moore is living on a month-to-month lease and is frustrated Ocean Management won’t offer a yearly contract.
“I have a two year old son, and that's the things I worry about, if we was told we have to leave today, where am I going to go? Am I going to be someone who is going to be homeless?” Moore said.
Mayor Justin Elicker said over the years, they have received numerous complaints regarding Ocean Management properties. In his proposed budget, Elicker is trying to address the ongoing issues by adding five additional housing code inspectors.
“They can take legal action if the landlord doesn't fix what they identify as a problem, rats or mold, leaky ceilings or malfunctioning apparatuses in the apartment. If we have more inspectors we can just cover a lot more ground and respond to frankly what is a high number of complaints that we get,” Elicker said.
Ocean Management did not respond to our request for a comment.
