Tenants of two troubled apartment buildings in the Kansas City area have voted for a second month of rent strikes, continuing what organizers say is the longest-running rent strike in regional history.
Residents of Independence Towers in Independence and Quality Hill Towers in Kansas City began the double rent strike on October 1, withholding $60,000 in rent payments. Starting November 1, tenants will withhold an additional $65,000, bringing the now $125,000 labor action into its fifth week.
Tenants from both buildings formed a union with housing organization KC Tenants this year, with residents of Independence Towers joining in May and residents of Quality Hill joining in September.
Both buildings have been plagued for months, if not years, by serious plumbing problems, non-functional heating and cooling, flooding, mold, holes in walls and ceilings, and infestations of pests, including mice and cockroaches. Residents of Independence Towers have also reportedly experienced three water shutoffs in the past eight months.
Organizers previously stated that 57% of Independence Towers tenants participated in the strike. According to KC Tenants, the group of tenants on rent strike has expanded with the move to month two.
“In the second month of the strike, encouraged by the victories in the first month, the strikes have increased,” KC Tenants wrote in a statement on Friday. The nonprofit is now affiliated with the Tenant Union Federation, a national conglomerate of similar local tenant associations.
The two-tenant unions are demanding a new owner for both buildings, as well as collectively negotiated leases. They also demand a 3% limit on rent increases on a national scale.
Organizers say the double strike is the first-ever labor action to simultaneously target both landlords and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the national regulator that oversees Fannie Mae.
On November 25, Fannie Mae announced a $1.35 million payout to fund repairs to Independence Towers amid the ongoing strike. The payout, which tenant union leaders described as both “a major victory for the union” and “a once-in-a-lifetime bailout,” was supported by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who began hinting he would support a rent strike after tour of Independence Towers. September 3.
Earlier this week, FHFA organizers proposed a one-hour meeting with KC Tenants staff in Kansas City on November 8. According to KC Tenants, the agency had previously offered a representative of the Tenant Union Federation a formal meeting in Washington DC with the director of FHFA. Sandra Thompson, but had moved to the proposed date of November 8 after TUF submitted a set of negotiating terms for the call.
“This is an epic act from a regulator with the authority to systematically stand up for everyday people,” the Tenant Union Federation shared in Friday’s press release.
If the Nov. 8 meeting in Kansas City went ahead as proposed by the FHFA, Thompson would not attend. An FHFA communications specialist previously said Thompson had broken her knee and did not expect to be medically cleared for travel by Nov. 8.
KC Tenants said Friday that without Thompson, organizers would not consider the proposed FHFA meeting a strike bargaining session.
Before KC Tenants even agreed to the proposed meeting, they demanded from FHFA a list of attendees at the meeting and other engagements in Kansas City, along with answers to a series of questions about the real estate loans and landlords’ finances at both Independence Towers and Quality Hill.
Tenants also require that FHFA devote a minimum of four hours to the upcoming meeting and that representatives stay overnight in one of the two prominent buildings.
Tenants of both buildings will march outside both buildings on Friday evening in support of the extended strike.
Previous reporting by Noelle Alviz-Gransee contributed to this reporting.
