Two CT tenant unions, one family: The impacts of organizing

It started with a leak.

It was a trickle of water that turned into a stream, pouring from the bathroom ceiling into Jim and Seamus Blau’s home at the Emerson Apartments in New Haven and flowing until it destroyed the ceiling, sending their lives into disarray.

In February, Seamus, 17, went to live with his mother, Greta Blau, in Hamden and Jim moved into a hotel. Soon after, New Haven officials condemned the apartment. The Blaus expected it to be a temporary arrangement, but it has stretched across the last seven months.

Soon after the leak started, the residents at Jim Blau’s apartment building formed the Emerson Tenants Union to help him and the other person displaced by the leak, Alexander Kolokotronis. Seamus settled for seeing his dad on the weekends.

But moving in with his mother didn’t mean Seamus could avoid conversations or debates about tenant union organizing. Because while his father lived in a hotel and battled for repairs, his mother was struggling with her own case.

She and her husband, Paul Boudreau, had formed a tenants union at the Seramonte Estates in Hamden about two years prior and faced an eviction in court, which they believed was retaliatory.

And Seamus was at the center of the storm, living through the effects of strained landlord-tenant relationships that have become commonplace across the state as rents rise, housing stock ages and tenants unionize in attempts to push serious negotiations with landlords.

“I do miss my dad because I don’t get to see him as much anymore,” Seamus said, in an interview earlier this summer.

“I miss you too,” his father responded.

For months, Seamus has been caught in the middle of two tenant-landlord disputes punctuated by union rallies and housing court and municipal hearing dates, with his parents doing their best to keep things as normal for him as possible.

While his mother’s case has finally seen a resolution in recent weeks, his father’s living situation — which impacts the teen’s main residence — is still in limbo, meaning Seamus continues to face the uncertainty that comes along with these types of housing disputes.

Tenant organizing

Connecticut has seen a growing tenant union movement over the past few years. It began in New Haven in 2021 and has spread across the state. The movement has also gained political power over the years and organizers have pushed for legislation that’s drawn hours of testimony. They also created a formal statewide organization last year to increase their political standing and take certain actions such as hiring a lobbyist.

John Souza, president of the Connecticut Coalition of Property Owners, said he’s not necessarily opposed to tenant unions, but he wants to ensure everything is fair.

“If it’s valid complaints, then I don’t have any problem with it,” Souza said. “If it’s only used to keep the rents as low as possible, that’s not always possible.”

There are at least 18 tenant unions in Connecticut, and 16 are affiliated with the statewide organization. Tenants who have organized speak often about the strength, power and belonging that comes from joining a union. But the hard work and the frequent tension with a landlord can be stressful.

The Seramonte Tenant Union formed in early 2022 because of problems with towing. People’s cars were towed for infractions such as parking crooked in a spot or snow covering a parking permit.

Tenants also struggled to get certain repairs done. They complained of cracked ceilings, broken appliances and damaged tiles, among other problems.

Seramonte CT LLC filed an eviction case against Greta and Paul in 2022, claiming that Greta had been a serious nuisance. Court filings claim she threatened a tow truck driver and harassed her landlord’s attorney.

Greta says that’s not true. She and Boudreau both called it an act of retaliation because of their tenant union organizing. After a long court battle, the couple recently won their case.

But Greta said she’s still worried about her son.

“This is his last year of high school,” she said. “And he’s not getting time with his father.”

For Boudreau and Greta, many of the issues were resolved earlier this summer after years of fighting. A new manager has taken over at their apartment building earlier this year and canceled a contract with the company that was regularly towing residents’ cars, which was one of the major concerns for the union. They also won their eviction case this summer.

“It’s a completely different feel from the last property manager until now,” said Jillian Anderson, property manager at the Seramonte Estates.

Anderson said she has a good relationship with the union.

Meanwhile, uncertainty persists for Seamus’ dad.

Boudreau said while he’s glad to have Seamus in Hamden now, it’s not the typical situation.

There’s more for Seamus to do in New Haven, he said. And he’s accustomed to living with his dad.

“Our place is the hideout like, you go, you play video games, and then he goes back to his father’s,” Boudreau said, directing his attention to Seamus. “And that’s, that’s like, your home, really, right?”

Ian Gottlieb, an attorney for Michael Hayes, the owner of the New Haven apartments, didn’t respond to a request for an interview. But during a fair rent commission hearing earlier this summer, he said his client hasn’t violated state law or retaliated against the tenant union.

“As far as the union activity, my client doesn’t really care about that,” Gottlieb said.

The Emerson Tenants Union started earlier this year, as some of the problems at Seramonte were ongoing. It’s a small building, previously owned by Trinity Lutheran Church. When the leak started, it took the landlord a couple of days to shut off the water.

By the time they’d shut down the flow, the damage was substantial. Chunks of the bathroom wall and ceiling in Jim’s apartment were falling off, and the city condemned he and Kolokotronis’ units.

They formed a union quickly. Jim had heard about the experience from his ex-wife, and Kolokotronis is a labor organizer.

“We were starting to form the tenants union and starting to realize that things were really getting dicey because the landlord wouldn’t respond,” Jim said. “So they wouldn’t do any work, and they weren’t responding.”

A few months later, the church still hadn’t made repairs. Jim and Kolokotronis were living in hotel rooms. Many of their belongings were destroyed by the water and the mold that formed from the moisture in their homes.

The church sold the building in June for $2.7 million to The Emerson LLC, according to reporting from the New Haven Independent .

Residents rallied and sent messages to their new landlord asking for repairs, asking that Jim and Kolokotronis be moved back in, to no avail.

“I basically have two jobs, I have my real job, and then I do this,” Kolokotronis said, referring to organizing at his apartment. “It is super stressful.”

Residents at the Emerson Apartments got notices on their door that leases won’t be renewed. Jim says he and Kolokotronis didn’t get notices at the same time.

They fought the issue with the New Haven Fair Rent Commission, claiming the notices were retaliation because they’d formed a union.

After some discussion, commission members decided that they couldn’t consider it retaliation because no paperwork was filed in court.

“It’s just a notice on the door. It’s not a notice to quit,” said Commissioner Wendy Gamba, during the meeting, referring to a legal eviction notice. “If it was a notice to quit, I think it becomes a legal action that we have something to respond to. But, taping something to a door, you know, while it may not be the best look, it’s not a legal action.”

The decision wasn’t unanimous; Commissioner Bita Taubes voted against it.

“If they were owners, they wouldn’t be put out because they have to redo the plumbing,” Taubes said. “I just don’t feel like you have to put people out of their building to do the plumbing or the heating or the siding or the floors. I just feel bad that they would have to go and then the rent situation is awful.”

Weeks after the hearing, the landlord filed an eviction against Jim . The court filing tied the condemnation of the apartment to a termination of “the right or privilege to occupy the premises.”

Last week, Jim filed a request for the court dismiss the eviction case.

The evictions, and the uncertainty, has been the worst part for Seamus, he said. Not knowing what was going to happen, where he’d live, when he could stay with his dad again.

At a New Haven diner earlier this summer, he talked with Greta, Paul and Jim about the experience.

“It was stressful,” he said. He said it was hard to think about anything else. He talked to a few of his friends about it, and attended rallies with his family.

At his description, Greta considered her son carefully for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” she said, stretching her hand halfway across the table toward the teenager. He shook his head and shrugged.

“It’s OK, Mom. It’s OK.”

Uncertainty persists

But he says the experience with his parents has made him think that the city isn’t there to help. He wanted New Haven’s government to step in by now, to make sure his father is back in his home.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker says the city has done all it can. After the tenants advocated for it and their rental insurance ran out, the city covered the cost of their hotel rooms while they’re displaced. They’ve also put liens on the property, he said.

The landlord has filed a permit to do the repairs, and because they’ve made that effort, the town can’t fine them further, Elicker said.

“First I’ll say I can imagine how frustrating it must be for Mr. Blau and Mr. Kolokotronis to be displaced,” he said. “These situations are not very common at all. This specific type of situation is not common at all. As you can imagine, a landlord typically wants rent and would be motivated to quickly fix whatever issue and charge rent again on their structure on the unit.”

The Seramonte group also had its arguments with the city over the problems at their apartment. They filed fair rent complaints and invited town officials out to the apartments to see the conditions. Tenants called the police a few times about tows they said weren’t fair.

Seamus has lived at Seramonte for the past several months and watched as his mother and stepfather struggled through their eviction proceedings. Greta had to take a step back from organizing for her mental health because of the stress.

“We’re struggling to stay together at this point,” Boudreau said. “And it’s because of the organizing. People don’t realize the toll it takes to get stuff done.”

The resolution has been mostly positive with the landlord although it was a long road to get there, the couple said.

Although that question is settled for Seamus, he’s still not sure when he’ll next get to stay with his dad or go back to living in New Haven, where he’s lived for years.

There’s been little communication between the landlord and the Emerson Tenants Union. They don’t know when or if repairs will be made, or what will happen when their leases end.

During a protest for the Emerson Tenants Union in New Haven earlier this summer, Seamus arrived with two of his friends. His mother was there, leading chants. And his father was there, speaking into a megaphone.

“Today is about expressing our anger, but it’s also about giving our new landlord an opportunity to do the right thing,” Jim said. “If he really does not want to be known as a slumlord and a gentrifier, he could sit down at the bargaining table with us as a union.”

Seamus, sitting alongside the wall, jumped into the marching circle of people in support of his father.

“What’s disgusting?” one marcher said.

“Union busting,” Seamus and the others responded.

“What’s outrageous?” the marcher said.

“Retaliation,” the crowd answered.