Kansas City dual tenant unions reauthorize rent strike for a second month
Tenants at two troubled apartment buildings in the Kansas City area have voted to authorize a second month of rent strikes, continuing what organizers say is the longest-running rent strike in regional history.
Residents at Independence Towers in Independence and Quality Hill Towers in Kansas City embarked on the dual rent strike Oct. 1, withholding $60,000 in rent payments. As of Nov. 1, tenants are withholding an additional $65,000, bringing the now $125,000 labor action into its fifth week.
Tenants of both buildings formed unions this year with housing justice organization KC Tenants, with Independence Towers residents unionizing in May and Quality Hill residents joining in September.
Both buildings have been plagued for months, if not years, by serious issues with plumbing, nonfunctional heat and cooling, flooding, mold, holes in walls and ceilings and infestations of pests including mice and cockroaches. Independence Towers residents have also reportedly experienced three water shutoffs in the last eight months.
Organizers previously stated that 57% of Independence Towers tenants were participating in the strike. The group of tenants on rent strike has expanded moving into month two, according to KC Tenants.
“In the second month of the strike, emboldened by wins in month one, the strikes have grown,” KC Tenants wrote in a Friday statement. The nonprofit is now affiliated with the Tenant Union Federation, a nationwide conglomerate of similar local tenant unions.
The dual tenant unions are demanding new ownership for both buildings, as well as collectively bargained leases. They are also demanding a 3% cap on rent increases on a nationwide scale.
According to organizers, the dual strike is the first-ever labor action to simultaneously target both landlords and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the national regulator overseeing Fannie Mae.
On Nov. 25, Fannie Mae announced a $1.35 million disbursement to fund repairs at Independence Towers amid the ongoing strike. The payout, which tenant union leaders described as both “a major victory for the union” and “a one-off bailout,” was supported by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who began hinting he would support a rent strike after touring Independence Towers on Sept. 3.
Earlier this week, FHFA organizers proposed a one-hour meeting with KC Tenants personnel in Kansas City for Nov. 8. According to KC Tenants, the agency had previously offered a Tenant Union Federation representative a formal meeting in Washington, D.C., with FHFA director Sandra Thompson, but had switched to the proposed Nov. 8 date after TUF submitted a series of bargaining terms for the conversation.
“This is an epic fumble by a regulator with the authority to systemically show up for everyday people,” the Tenant Union Federation shared in Friday’s release.
If the Nov. 8 meeting in Kansas City continued as proposed by FHFA, Thompson would not be in attendance. An FHFA communication specialist previously said that Thompson had fractured 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 to be a strike bargaining session.
Before agreeing to the proposed meeting at all, KC Tenants have demanded a list of meeting participants and other Kansas City engagements from FHFA, along with answers to a series of inquiries about the property loans and landlord finances at both Independence Towers and Quality Hill.
Tenants are also demanding that FHFA devote at least four hours to the upcoming meeting, and that representatives stay overnight in one of the two striking buildings.
Tenants at both buildings will march outside both buildings Friday evening in support of the extended strike.
Previous reporting by Noelle Alviz-Gransee contributed to this coverage.
