Tenant Union Takes On Q Gardens

A new tenant union put a landlord on notice that it plans to fight back unless conditions improve at their Quinnipiac Meadows apartment complex.

Residents of the Quinnipiac Gardens at 1314 Quinnipiac Ave. have formed the tenant union. Ten members showed up as a group Tuesday afternoon at the Howe Street headquarters of their landlord, local real estate company Pike International.

The group came prepared with a petition signed by 43 tenants and a list of demands regarding ​“mismanagement of maintenance reports,” irregular rent increases, and a $3 fee for rent payments at Walmart.

Demands included that management address vermin, broken kitchen appliances, mold, and water damage. The tenants also complained about cars being towed, infrequent trash pickups, and threats of eviction.

The group entered the building around 4:20 p.m.

Upon arrival at the main office Tuesday, the residents asked the front desk administrative assistant to speak to someone in the building about their concerns. The assistant, who declined sharing their name, said no one but maintenance workers were in the building. The assistant called the Quinnpiac Gardens property manager twice and sent him and the Pike founder Shmully Hecht urgent emails about the union’s request to talk to someone.

The group sat in the lobby, which was decorated with a sign reading ​“I found Pike International online, and I’m beyond grateful I did.” They waited to speak to someone in the office. Meanwhile, tenants from other Pike properties stopped in to pay their rent or called in about leaks in their apartments.

Members of the New Haven branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which helped organize the union after learning about conditions and complaints at the complex, accompanied tenants at the event.

“We’re at the step where the next step would be that we’re gonna withhold our rent. We’re going to pay to the city instead of paying it to the company, and they will have to go through that. So this is an opportunity for them to fix things before we take it to the city,” said one tenant, who declined to share their name. ​“These are all things that we have messaged him, written him, texted him, left all kinds of messages about and no one will contact us.”

The group waited for a half hour before leaving. They promised to continue fighting.

Reached afterward, the complex’s manager, who asked not to be named, dismissed the action as ​“exaggerated and surprising.” He told the Independent that he believes the complaints stem from new lease renewal agreements that include ​“modest rent increases.”

Some new leases will include a 2 to 2.5 percent rent increase due to inflation and raising property taxes, the property manager said. The manager calculated this increase to an increase of $15 to $20 per month for residents, who he said pay between $965 and $1,115 a month for the complex’s two and three-bedroom apartments.

“As far as I’m concerned, the property is in good shape,” he said.

The property manager said that the tenants have his direct number and that he addresses every text and voicemail he receives. He also said he is temporarily boosting staff to tackle maintenance issues at the complex.

New Haven native Kay Pittman, 58, has lived at Quinnipiac Gardens with her now 32-year-old son for the past six years. She has tried to move out of the complex multiple times because ​“they come around for rent, and that’s it,” she said.

“We’re paying our rent for nothing. Nothing’s getting done,” Pittman said.

Since she moved in to her two-bedroom apartment, Pittman said, she found a rat in her kitchen, water-damaged ceilings, mold her in her bathroom, and cracks in her bedroom wall.

The manager said water damage is a ​“legit issue” many apartments have due to bathrooms being on top of kitchens in the apartments. He said some plumbing is failing due to age. The maintenance team treats reports of the damage as a high priority for repairs, he said. ​“They open up ceiling and lift tiles to check the plumbing handles when necessary.”

Pittman, like some of the other tenants, receives a federal Section 8 rental subsidy. She is currently looking for a new apartment that accepts Section 8 and is well-maintained, and pet friendly. ​“I want something totally better. I can’t take it no more,” she said.

Over the past six years, Pittman said, Pike has had five different property managers for the complex. She argued that the company does only temporary fixes to maintenance issues, in advance of Section 8 inspections.

The property manager said last month he did an inspection of each apartment for the complex’s 71 households. ​“I do my own inspections to be proactive and find issues I’m not satisfied with, even if the tenants haven’t complained,” he said.

During his July inspection, he documented what he termed tenant-caused damage. He said admittedly that Pike has created an ​“environment where tenants don’t believe they have responsibility for the damages they cause to apartments.”

Pittman said she was so excited to move out of my sister’s house six years ago that she ​“was blind to all the issues from day one. But they were always there.”

In a walk-through of her home Tuesday, Pittman pointed out her outdoor boiler room’s water-damaged ceiling, painted-over cracks in her walks, and eroding bathroom floor tiles.

Pittman’s rent is $950 a month. Section 8 pays $650 of that amount, leaving her and her son to split the remainder.

Soon after her arrival in 2015, Pittman said, she had a bathroom flood because her bathtub knob came loose. She said after the flood, mold began growing beside her bathtub under lifted tiles.

Pittman said she worries about having her daughter over because she has asthma. She also said she had to wait a month to get her stove fixed and as a result had to use ​“money I didn’t have to buy food out.”

“They can’t just keep brushing over the issues. They need to relocate people and tears this down and start over,” she said.

A full-time maintenance technician is assigned to the complex Monday through Friday for eight hours a day, according to Pike. When issues arise, tenants are given the option of reaching out to the property manager directly or calling the central office.

High-priority complaints related to tenants’ health and safety are usually addressed within 24 hours, the manager said. Those complaints include electrical, plumbing, and broken appliance issues.

Pittman said she joined the union to band together with her neighbors to show Pike that their residents on fixed incomes deserve safe and livable homes ​“the same that the Yale kids do.”

Cesar Negron, 48, who has lived at the complex for seven years, joined the union to be sure that the seniors around the complex are being treated fairly, he said. Negron said his apartment is in decent condition and his maintenance issues are resolved in a timely manner, but he has heard from his neighbors that they go months without maintenance fixes.

His neighbor Carlos Maldonado, 79, has lived at the complex for five years. Maldonado said he has been requesting a pest exterminator for months.

In response, the manager said all tenants were provided with the phone number for CT Pest Solutions. They can schedule an exterminator appointment, and Pike will pay for it, he said.

He added that many residents’ vermin problems result from families leaving trash in their backyards. During the last inspection, the manager brought an exterminator for preventive service to each apartment. Those apartments in poor sanitary shape were provided services to help on the spot, he said.

As of Wednesday, the property manager said, 90 percent of the complex’s work orders have been addressed. Those remaining are not health or safety issue, and are on a list, he said. All tenant maintenance reports are handled in a ​“reasonable time,” he said.

For the past six months, Maldonado said, the stove in his sister Lydia Gonzales’ apartment has worked for only five minutes at a time.

The manager disputed complaints about appliances not working. ​“That’s bizarre to me because every appliance is functional that we tested,” he said.

In response to the other demands of the tenants, the manager said the parking lot’s potholes were filled last month and inspected by the city, which approved of the job. He added that a contracted tow company has improperly towed permitted tenants cars three times in the past. Those tenants have since received reimbursements credits for the mistakes, he said.