Jabez Choi photos
Tenants union leader Zach Postle tapes a pamphlet to Farnam's front door ...
... as union members and supporters rally for a collective lease.
Another tenants union rallied outside another front door of another Ocean Management successor — calling for their new property management company to step it up on maintenance, and to be open to negotiating a collective lease.
The members are with the tenants union at 1455 State St., whose building was previously owned by Ocean Management. However, Ocean’s failure to pay debts associated with the building has left the building held in a receivership with Farnam Realty Group since August.
The rally occurred outside the real estate agency’s office on 107 Whitney Ave. on a chilly Tuesday afternoon.
“We want to sit down, hash out new leases, and really just talk to a real decision-maker, Farnam. They have the decision-making power to speak to us, to negotiate leases, and to change things in a way where everybody wins,” tenant Zach Postle said. “But we still haven’t gotten any of our issues resolved for the most part.”
Farnam had initially agreed to engage in a collective bargaining process back in September, but had suddenly ceased negotiations.
In a conversation with the Independent, building superintendent Max Young shared that there were early conversations in the fall about the complaints the tenants union had at 1455 State St., with the goal to achieve a “union-approved standard lease.” Young stated that, in the meeting, he listened to the concerns of the tenants union, but then found older LCI reports that did not get passed to him before Farnam took over. He informed the tenants union that priority lay in taking care of those complaints first. Then, Young was informed by Farnam lawyers that they do not have the authority to negotiate leases.
But, according to union leader Lauren Palulis, there is legal ground for this negotiation.
“We are asking for them to negotiate a collectively-bargained lease with us,” Palulis said. “They have the legal capability to do that.”
Palulis is referring to the receivership documents issued in August when Farnam became the fiduciary responsible for the building. The document states that the receiver is “empowered” to take “all actions he may deem necessary” to have “proper condition to maintain the existing leases and encourage and negotiate new leases (subject to the specific approval of the Court for rental terms) to eliminate or reduce the existing vacancy factor.” Further the document states that receiver must carry out “necessary repairs and maintenance of the Property.”
According to Palulis and the tenants present at the press conference, although there have been some repairs, the building is not in proper condition. They cited ongoing security issues, improper and dangerous repairs, unaddressed repairs, leaks, temperature issues, and a recent mold discovery.
As for security, tenant Krystopher Linderman, who lives near the front entrance, said that he worries about opening the door to his hallway and seeing someone who doesn’t belong there. Palulis also recalled incidents of people sleeping inside the building’s vestibule, due to unlocked doors. Additionally, Linderman emphasized the need for camera security, citing a recent hit and run outside the building that was not captured by building footage.
Young stated that he was “proud” of the work Farnam has poured into the building, and shared screenshots of a singular maintenance request left on the online portal — a request for screens to be implemented, which haven’t been installed since the building began accepting tenants.
Farnam founder Carol Horsford echoed Young’s statements, saying that the agency has spent over $10,000 in the past three months to take care of maintenance requests, as well as over $25,000 of open invoices from previous vendors who were providing maintenance.
“The other truth is we were appointed by the court, I can just give this receivership back, unless the tenants can be happy and appreciate all the work that Max is doing and the handyman and the people in the office that are…try[ing] to create a better environment for them,” Horsford said. “We don’t have to do this.”
But tenants at the press conference said that the online portal is not an accurate portrayal of the state of the building.
“The only thing that Farnum has fixed for us are things that have opened LCI reports. So if people have gone through the process of filing with the city, then, they have to fix it.,” Palulis said. “But everything else that people have put in repair requests…they’ll close those requests without addressing them.”
Tenants also stated that the electricity bill has quadrupled to over $650 a month, a figure that is bizarre to the tenants as a number of them have reported temperature issues, with the rooms reported as not being properly heated.
After the press conference ended, tenants handed out pamphlets with a picture of the mold discovery in the basement of the building. The Farnam office had locked its front door, barring the protestors from coming in. A woman, unaffiliated with the 1455 State St. tenants union, walked up to the door to pay her rent, but found she couldn’t get in immediately. Eventually, the woman was let in.
Following the interaction, tenants taped the pamphlet to the front door of the office.
“Clearly right now, what Farnum is doing is not enough to actually address what’s going on in this building,” Connecticut Tenants Union President Hannah Srajer said. “And we want to be really clear, if you make a promise with the union to negotiate, we expect you to hold that promise.”
Connecticut Tenants Union president Hannah Srajer: "If you make a promise with the union to negotiate, we expect you to hold that promise.”