New Tenant Union Forms, Targets Towing

A tenant union has formed in Hamden to take on a landlord over not just rents, but allegedly relentless towing by a contracted company.

The tenants, at Seramonte Estates, held a rally Monday to press their demands.

Around 30 tenants and organizers — as well as Legislative Council members Abdul-Razak Osmanu and Laurie Sweet — presented a list of demands to Northpoint Management, which runs the property on Mix Avenue. They cited exploitative and unnecessary towing practices by a company called ​“MyHoopty” (which doubles as a used car dealership) and alleged unresponsive — as well as threatening — treatment by Northpoint. 

The meeting marked the third tenant union formed with the support of the Greater New Haven Democratic Socialists of America. Read about the other two, formed in New Haven, here and here.

The crew started off the march by sharing stories about Seramonte over scones at Panera inside the Hamden Plaza. Then they picked up banners and mics and started to walk west behind the plaza towards the property management offices, where they delivered speeches and confronted Property Manager Shannon McMunn.

“Seramonte, stop neglecting!” the group chanted as they hiked up a hill to the apartments. ​“Stop evicting! Stop the towing! Stop the retaliation!” 

Drivers honked in support of their movement. Some tenants passing by who were unable to join or unaware of the meeting exchanged information with those holding signs and cheered them on. 

Elizabeth Oelsen, 52, has lived in a Seramonte apartment with her mother, 76, since 2018. She said she joined the union because conditions in the complex have been poor throughout the past four years.

“The day we moved in, there was a broken washing machine. It’s been broken ever since,” she said.

“I have a small dog, a maltese, who’s seizure prone — he thinks there’s a monster in the closet every time I do laundry!” Oelsen said.

She said that she has also had problems with water leaks, a malfunctioning dishwasher, and harassment from the towing company.

Though she hasn’t actually been towed, she said, those doing the towing have made her feel unsafe. She said that one time while she was walking her dogs, a man towing a neighbor’s car away shouted at her: ​“What the fuck are you looking at?”

“They look at me like I’m a piece of meat,” she asserted, noting that she constantly receives ​“dirty looks” from employees of the company. 

Packing up and moving is not an option, Oelsen said, because she is busy caring for her elderly mom, who recently suffered from a stroke. 

Tenant Rachel Massaro, 35, moved in before Olesen, back in 2017. 

“In the beginning, it was great,” the mother of four countered. 

“Maintenance wasn’t the best, but we never had our cars towed.”

Like Olesen and others, she said she has more recently struggled with broken dishwashers, lack of maintenance around the property, and a recent rent hike.

But her biggest concern is the exorbitant fines she is facing from MyHoopty, she said.

Since Northpoint Management took control of the property and hired MyHoopty’s services, Massaro has been towed four times.

Twice, she said, she parked in visitor parking spots because there was a surplus of space but no residential parking available. Another time, her car was towed because it had a flat tire and was deemed ​“inoperable.” Another time, she parked in a spot in reverse. She ran into her apartment to unload her son’s birthday cake — and came back out to find her car gone.

She phoned management. They threatened to fine her if she called again, pointing to a rule that tenants who call with towing complaints are charged $75 — because they are required to meet directly with the towing company.

“Parking has become one of the most major sources of controversy and headaches from residents,” tenant Paul Boudreau, the founder of the union, said in a speech outside McMunn’s office, reading from a letter written by one of his sons, Jack. 

“Functioning and manageable parking spaces have transitioned to having more stringent regulations than most prisons,” the letter read. ​“Minor offenses, like turning in instead of backing in, parking stickers not visible due to snow, and parking in a visitors’ spot because there’s no other spot left to park” are commonly used as reasons for fining and towing, the statement continued. 

Boudreau added that when he moved in around five years ago, his apartment was home ​“to game and movie nights.” Now, his sons no longer invite their friends over — because everyone is afraid of getting towed. 

The Independent attempted to call MyHoopty to address tenants’ listed concerns. The company instructs callers to leave a voice message, warning that they will otherwise not be able to return calls. But the voice mailbox was full when this reporter phoned.

After around ten minutes of tenants rallying outside managements’ offices, McMunn came to the door and let them inside to speak. Following some heated back and forth, the residents left a list of demands on her desk and agreed to meet with her to negotiate later on.

Those demands included: Ending the contract with MyHoopty, responding to maintenance issues within 24 hours, banning unpredictable and unreasonable rent raises, ending stalling lease renewal for tenants, and establishing respectful communication between tenants and management. 

“We’re dealing with you as a union now because we’re done dealing with you as individuals,” Boudreau informed her. ​“The strongarm tactics aren’t gonna work. ​‘Cause we’re together now.”

McMunn later spoke to the Independent, asserting that since Northpoint took over the property in 2021, they have been working to better problematic conditions left behind by old management.

Seramonte Estates includes a total of 450 apartments. When she started the job, McMunn said, there were ​“four high rises whose roofs were in utter disrepair, causing units with extensive water damage.”

She said that management has put new roofs on those buildings, launched extensive renovations of complex hallways, initiated new landscaping efforts and is currently going out to bid to find a company to fill potholes plaguing parking lots and sidewalks.

In the meantime, she said, they are pursuing a $100 to $200 rent hike for each tenant because ​“inflation is real” and they are ​“simply trying to bring the property up to market rate.”

McMunn stated that management has been highly responsive to all tenant concerns, with 2,346 work orders completed since January of 2021. She said that she did not believe all tenants were properly calling attention to their issues, possibly by failing to log their concerns in an online portal.

As for towing, Northpoint contracted MyHoopty when they took ownership of the space because ​“there were 100 unregistered, inoperable or abandoned vehicles” on site and ​“parking is very tight.”

“We were freeing up space for residents,” she said, ​“and trying to identify people who are living here who haven’t told us they’re living here,” by tracking parking permits.

She concluded: ​“Honestly, I’m glad that happened this morning.”

“I want to have a dialogue, instead of having ​‘Stop Seramonte’ going on in people’s homes.”

“Miserable tenants don’t make my job any easier. I want everyone to feel happy and safe and like their rent is well spent,” McMunn said.

She also addressed long-lived claims of retaliation against tenants for speaking out: ​“I have never refused anyone a lease renewal. I have never retaliated in any manner.”

McMunn said that she had been in contact with the property’s owner and that they would soon launch a ​“plan of action” in response to tenant demands.