Raytown tenants meet with landlord over living conditions: ‘Need a negotiation’
Across the street from a Raytown library and occasionally drowned out by road construction on a sunny Friday morning, members of the Bowen Tower Tenant Union explained why living conditions in their apartment building, which they allege is rundown and often lacks basic amenities, pushed them to form a union.
Bowen Tower Apartments, located at 6140 Raytown Road, is a 92-unit building that houses mostly elderly and disabled people.
Tenants said they began coming together to discuss issues last October. In May, tenants began organizing the union after they said they lived without hot water and gas for over a week, according to a news release from KC Tenants, a local tenant union.
In July, residents of the building launched their union, believed to be the first tenant union in Raytown history. As of Friday, around 55% of the building had joined the union. Tenants alleged in the release they have lived without heating, air conditioning, and endured consistent flooding for at least a year.
This year, their rent went up 15%.
In a news conference Friday, more than 10 members of the union, like Shelley Bell, who is currently battling bone cancer, described some of the conditions she and her husband live in.
“This past winter, we did not have heat in our building,” Bell said. “We did not have any air conditioning in our building until late June, after someone calls the city. The air conditioning still does not work for everyone, and there’s a chance it will go out again at any time. We live with flooded apartments, backed-up sinks, and broken elevators in a building with many tenants who are elderly and wheelchair bound.”
The elevators in the building have been fixed as of Friday, tenants said.
Friday was the deadline the union gave the building’s landlord, Charles Hill of Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments, a private company based out of Los Angeles, to negotiate an agreement. Thursday night, Hill agreed to meet with the union on Friday afternoon.
Hill and Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investment did not respond to The Star’s request for comment.
The union is demanding permanent fixes to plumbing, HVAC systems, and broken entrances to the building, 24-hour responses on maintenance requests, and caps on rent increases. They also hope to get protection from evictions and lease non-renewals while receiving recognition for the union.
“My hope is that we can move forward collaboratively to make Bowen Tower a safe, affordable and healthy place for us to live,” Bell said.
‘We need a negotiation’
Tina McDonald, 60, has lived at Bowen Tower for eight years; five of those years, she has been taking care of her father, who has Alzheimer’s disease and moved from Texas to live with her. McDonald said she has a leak in her father’s bathroom that has been intermittently repaired for three years.
At 4 a.m. one morning, McDonald woke up to standing water throughout her apartment, she said. Maintenance workers broke into the bathroom wall but never fixed the wall, leaving a hole, McDonald said.
“It’s like they band-aided it and it stopped, but then it came back on down the line. Maybe six months later it shows back up,” McDonald said. “For three years, that’s what it’s been doing.”
In July, Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments told The Star that more than $200,000 has been spent on plumbing repairs and replacements over the last 18 months and $320,000 has been spent on additional repairs in the building. More improvements have been made over the last eight years, including the installation of a new chiller, two new boilers, a new hot water tank piping system, a new water cooler, and a full roof replacement, which was completed in 2016, according to ownership.
“While we acknowledge the recent string of maintenance concerns, please be assured that we are actively managing each issue and remain committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and lawful environment for all residents and staff members,” Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments said in a statement.
Bowen Tower resident Joe Mount, a retired Army veteran and truck driver, alleged management retaliated against residents who were forming the union by calling the police, serving three-day eviction notices, and sending letters stating union meetings were not authorized.
Building ownership told The Star in July that there has been no retaliation against tenants.
Tenants said Hill agreed to Friday’s meeting, but they worry he is not ready for formal negotiations. During the news conference, tenants said Hill immediately began fixing broken elevators several weeks ago after being directly notified by the union, and relocated many residents to hotels. Management also did a building inspection and began addressing longstanding issues, they said.
Tenants see these moves as positive signs, but they demand more.
“We are hopeful [that] meeting with him today will be productive and be the beginning of a good working relationship,” Mount said. “But we need more than just a sit down. We need a negotiation.”
Bowen Tower previously made headlines in 2023 after one person died and three more were hospitalized following a fire in the building.
