Another Day, Another Ocean Tenants Union

Zach Postle and his neighbors got tired of waiting days and weeks and months for their landlord to respond to maintenance concerns like broken windows and busted heating, so they formed a tenants union — the sixth to officially file with City Hall, and the fifth created at an Ocean Management rental property.

Postle, a 37-year-old biotech consultant, joined Connecticut Tenants Union Vice President Luke Melonakos-Harrison on the second floor of City Hall Thursday to submit the paperwork necessary to officially form the State Street Tenants Union.

That petition was signed by Postle and 15 fellow individual tenants who all live at the Ocean Management-owned, 17-unit apartment building at 1455 State St. in Cedar Hill. 

“The number one thing is protection,” Postle said about why he and his neighbors decided to form a union. Protection from rent increases without needed property upkeep. Protection from sudden evictions if the property is sold or lost through foreclosure (which may soon be the case for 1455 State).

“We’d like to negotiate” with the landlord on rent hikes and property upkeep, he said.

Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermúdez stamped the petition. She explained that her office’s receipt of the official documentation means that members of the newly recognized tenants union are now afforded a suite of protections from potential retaliation — whether in the form of personal harassment or a reduction in services — from their landlord. They also now have a city-defined path to file complaints about ​“excessive” rent hikes with the support of a tenants union representative.

The official registration of the State Street Tenants Union marks the sixth such union to form since New Haven passed tenants union-enabling legislation less than two years ago. Five of those tenants unions have been formed at Ocean properties. (One of those properties, at 1476 Chapel St., now has a different landlord; the building is one of the many to be sold by Ocean in recent years as they’ve unloaded dozens upon dozens of local rental properties.)

Postle said that he and his partner, Lauren Palulis, and their fellow 1455 State St. renters decided to form the tenants union because of concerns around maintenance — both the condition of the building itself, and the timeliness, or lack thereof, of needed repairs.

He said he and Palulis had reached out to management ​“40 times” over the course of more than four months to fix a window in his apartment that he described as broken and moldy. He said they’ve received no response.

When they started talking to other renters at 1455 State, they realized they were not alone. ​“We heard a lot of weird stories,” he said, about broken windows and leaky ceilings and defunct dishwashers and water damage. That’s not to mention how the building’s dumpster was locked and unusable and trash wasn’t picked up for months because their landlord was behind on their trash bills, he said.

Postle said he and Palulis pay $2,600 per month for a spacious, two-floor, two-bedroom apartment.

“The square footage is great,” he said, but the lack of property manager and landlord attention to maintenance has been endlessly frustrating. Even though the apartments are less than a decade old, he said, the materials used in the building’s redevelopment are ​“shoddy.”

Postle said that he and Palulis connected with Melonakos-Harrison and the Connecticut Tenants Union after Palulis posted on Reddit about their concerns with property maintenance at 1455 State St. That’s when they heard about plenty of other upkeep problems at plenty of other Ocean properties.

“As more and more tenants unionize across [Ocean’s] portfolio,” Melonakos-Harrison said, ​“and Ocean learns to recognize tenants unions, this whole process is becoming faster and more effective.” Plus, he said, Ocean has actually begun to sit down and talk and negotiate with these tenants unions. Melonakos-Harrison said that Ocean’s owner, Shmuel Aizenberg, has begun negotiating with tenants unions on Blake Street and Lenox Street. The newly formed State Street union even has a date on the books to meet up with Aizenberg and negotiate, he said.

The Connecticut Tenants Union and the various Ocean tenants unions plan to hold a rally at City Hall at 5 p.m. to announce the formation of the latest State Street union, and to celebrate Aizenberg’s agreement to negotiate with these different groups.

Aizenberg didn’t respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.