Raytown’s first-ever rent strike ends after 4 months as Bowen Tower reaches deal
For Cynthia Barlow, the trouble started with flooding.
Barlow’s apartment at Bowen Tower in Raytown started to flood in 2024, quickly making the space uninhabitable. In quick succession, Barlow lost all of her furniture to water damage, then began to develop mold throughout her space as the dampness lingered.
When the mold began to make her sick, Barlow was unable to work for long stretches of time, ultimately losing her job.
“I got tired,” Barlow said. “It’s been a battle.”
In October of that year, she began organizing with others in her buildings struggling with similarly compromised living conditions. Then, in May 2025, Barlow and her neighbors connected with citywide tenant union KC Tenants.
“I started holding meetings, bringing them information and literature to let them know, ‘You don’t have to take this,’” Barlow told The Star.
Nearly 15 months later, the group’s efforts have culminated in a deal they brokered with the building’s owner after tenants withheld rent for four months, the first union action of its kind among apartment residents in Raytown — and the latest in a series of several highly publicized rent strikes across the Kansas City metro.
Striking residents at Bowen Towers will resume paying rent Feb. 1 after four months of action.
“KC Tenants is leading a national movement towards tenants’ exercising their ultimate economic power: their rent,” organizers wrote in a Wednesday news release.
Tenants won utility rate reductions, eviction filing dismissals, guaranteed renewals at a fixed rate and several pledges for buildingwide repairs.
Issues at Bowen Tower
Barlow said that she and her neighbors were inspired to unionize after watching the Independence Towers tenant union successfully achieve better living conditions through a similar rent strike nearby. Some Independence Towers residents withheld rent payments for about eight months last year, winning lease renewals with a rent increase cap and permanent HVAC repair, among other concessions.
A group of residents met weekly starting in late 2024, Barlow said, and they officially launched their union with KC Tenants in May 2025, with about 52% of residents participating.
Along with flooding in Barlow’s and other units, residents had been experiencing issues with hot water along with faulty heating and air conditioning systems and broken elevators, according to resident and organizer Elijah Brink.
The building is owned by Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments, a national corporation, which owns more than 100 multifamily properties.
Tenants first met with Bowen Tower landlord Charles Hill in August 2025, according to Brink. The decision to withhold rent, Brink said, came after “extensive escalation, but no substantial progress toward a resolution.”
“This has not been easy,” Brink said. “...We refused to back down.”
In the months leading up to Wednesday’s agreement, Brink said, tenants led a march to Raytown City Hall, showed up en masse to residents’ eviction court hearings and invited Congressman Emanuel Cleaver to tour distressed units within the building.
Cleaver visited Bowen Tower earlier this month, ultimately working with tenants to put pressure on Alta/CGHS and building management.
“We know as tenants, we all go up together and we all go down together,” tenant and organizer Tina McDonald said.
McDonald described Wednesday’s contract as “a mutually beneficial agreement that will protect and improve our homes.”
“The negotiations were conducted in good faith and represent significant effort for both parties,” McDonald said. “...The stability we celebrate today is the direct result of steadfast organizing.”
What residents won
About half of residents at Bowen Tower Apartments began withholding rent payments on October 1, retaining about $110,000 total, said tenant and organizer Joe Mount. Since then, Alta/CGHS has filed paperwork to evict 27 strikers and declined to renew the leases of seven more, according to KC Tenants.
“A lot of them were afraid, because they thought if they go down and complain or give them a hard time, that they’ll kick them out,” Barlow told The Star.
The Bowen Tower Tenant Union, via KC Tenants, signed an agreement with Alta/CGHS Wednesday, agreeing to resume paying rent in exchange for a series of financial concessions and maintenance promises, Brink said.
Residents’ monthly utility rates will decrease by $90-$150 per month under the new agreement. The new rates will be frozen for two years.
All current tenants will receive new leases at a fixed, negotiated rate, ranging from $740/month for a studio to $1,113 for a three-bedroom apartment. They’ll be able to renew that lease once without a rent hike, after which Alta/CGHS has committed to negotiating rates with the union again, according to KC Tenants.
Alta/CGHS will conduct pest control and repair mold and water damage buildingwide by the end of February, along with fixing Bowen Tower’s buzzer and camera systems. The company will also conduct building-wide HVAC repairs and plumbing upgrades by the end of March.
As part of the agreement, the real estate group will also dismiss all active eviction cases against residents, including those filed before October 2024. They will also reopen lease agreements with the seven tenants who were previously told they could not renew at the building.
“Our agreement with Alta/CGHS ensures our right to organize without retaliation,” Mount said.
Meanwhile, the Bowen Tower Tenant Union has agreed to repay Alta/CGHS 35% of the total withheld rent costs, excluding legal fees.
The repayment will also exclude any costs already settled in Jackson County eviction court, where judges have ruled to cancel about $45,800 in tenants’ rent debts since October 2025, according to KC Tenants.
A resident community
Barlow said that she repeatedly felt frustrated by messaging and behavior from building management throughout the strike, but that she never felt intimidated.
The same could not be said for all her neighbors.
“A lot of them were afraid, because they thought if they go down and complain or give them a hard time, that they’ll kick them out,” Barlow told The Star.
The Bowen Tower union does not intend to disband, Barlow said, and could engage in further actions if future issues arise with building conditions or management.
“While our rent strike is coming to an end, we remain committed as a union to continue organizing,” Barlow said. “...We will organize to ensure everyone is submitting maintenance requests, following up to make sure outstanding repairs get addressed.”
Many residents left Bowen Tower during the rent strike and the months leading up to it, Barlow told The Star. But those who remained grew close.
“It really brought us together as a community,” Barlow said. “We would have potlucks up here, you know, sit and talk, serve food, go to each other’s apartments. The few of us that are left, we’re still strong.”
Barlow also hopes that significant repairs to the building will allow her to start cooking commercially out of her home kitchen again. If all goes to plan, she said, she’ll be back on the road in the second week of February with oxtail, fried chicken, mac and cheese, greens and desserts in tow.
“We are at the dawn of a tenant reckoning,” Barlow said. “And our power as tenants lies in our tenant union. What we have accomplished is a sign of what’s to come.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 6:26 AM.
