Independence Towers tenants temporarily lose hot water for the third time since March

Over 60 units at Independence Towers lost hot water over the weekend — marking their third hot water outage since March in a building plagued by problems ranging from lack of working utilities and appliances to poor maintenance and upkeep.

Hot water went out Saturday afternoon for 63 households, according to a news release from KC Tenants, a local tenant union. Plumbers were on site within an hour and hot water was restored Monday evening, though residents fear it could go out again.

“The only reason the landlord acted quickly to restore the hot water at Independence Towers is because the tenant union forced them to,” said Justin Stein, KC Tenant organizer in a statement. “Tenants immediately escalated the issue on social media and with Trigild, Fannie Mae, and the FHFA. This is a win for the Independence Towers Tenant Union, but is still not enough.”

On Sunday, KC Tenants posted a call to action on social media, demanding accountability from Sandra Thompson, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Fannie Mae regulator.

Trigild Vice President Nancy Daniels told the union the company was addressing the hot water problem, and the hot water was restored by Monday evening. Tenants requested $350 in compensation for the disruption, but have not heard back. Daniels did not immediately respond to The Star’s request for comment.

Residents first lost water for two weeks in March, pushing tenants to vote to unionize in May. Then, it happened a second time for eight days in August, according to Stein.

The most recent outage comes after tenants went on a rent strike for the month of October at both Independence Towers at 728 N. Jennings Road in Independence and Quality Hill Towers at 905 Jefferson Street in Kansas City, after tenants from both buildings protested for months about faulty plumbing and HVAC systems, non-functional heating and cooling, flooding, mold, holes in walls and ceilings and infestations of pests.

Quality Hill is currently owned by Sentinel Real Estate Corporation, while Independence Towers is under receivership by Trigild, Inc., with loans at both properties overseen by the Federal Housing Financing Agency by way of Fannie Mae. Independence Towers’ previous operators, FTW investments and co-founder Parker Webb, were ousted in May by a Jackson County judge for violating the terms of their loan agreement with Fannie Mae.

The rent strike at both apartments marks the longest rent strike in Kansas City history, according to KC Tenants. Over $60,000 in rent has been withheld from both buildings.

Tenants escalated rent strike Friday

A strike rally was held at Quality Hill Towers Friday that included a march to the apartments’ management office within the lobby of one of the towers, where residents taped several full cockroach traps — collected from across Quality Hill Towers — to the office door.

Residents also left additional cockroach traps in gallon bags, as well as photographs of deteriorating conditions at Quality Hill and several buckets of dingy bath and sink water, some of which tenants spilled outside the office door.

At Independence Towers, 57% of tenants are still participating in the rent strike as of Friday. Tenant organizers previously said that about 68% of residents have unionized.

Barring negotiations, the unions plan to meet and extend rent strikes through November.

Reporting by The Star’s Ilana Arougheti and PJ Green contributed to this article.

This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 2:54 PM.