Tenants at Quality Hill Towers and Independence Towers have been withholding rent payments for 18 days as of Friday, marking what organizers say is the longest rent strike in Kansas City history.
Across both buildings, tenants have withheld more than $60,000 in rent total, according to housing justice nonprofit KC Tenants. Residents at both complexes have formed unions with KC Tenants, with Independence Towers residents unionizing in May and Quality Hill tenants following suit in September.
The rent strike began Oct. 1. About 35 tenants at both buildings united Friday for consecutive strike rallies at the two troubled properties, calling building management and federal home financing company Fannie Mae to begin bargaining with tenants by the end of the following week.
Residents at both buildings have long been plagued by faulty plumbing and HVAC systems, nonfunctional heat and cooling, flooding, mold, holes in walls and ceilings and infestations of various pests. Most recently, some Independence Towers residents received water shutoff notices after building management company Trigild Inc. allegedly failed to pay the building's water bill.
"To find out that people have been living in this building for decades in the same thing, it has never changed, that makes me lose hope," said Quality Hill Towers resident Lawrence Sims. "I don't want to be stuck in a building like this for 20 years, living with roaches the entire time, losing hope slowly throughout my entire life."
Sims, 23, moved into an apartment at Quality Hill Towers three months ago. He said he began experiencing water and pest issues immediately.
"I had standing water for three weeks," Sims said. "They have not taken care of the roaches .... The fact that it takes this much fighting to get basic human necessities is appalling."
Friday's strike rally at Quality Hill Towers 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.
One KC Tenants organizer described the actions as "escalated action" and "political theater" and said that the insect-involved installation at Quality Hill had been pitched by tenant union leaders.
"This experience has turned me into somebody I didn't want to be -- a pissed-off old lady," Quality Hill Towers resident Susan Turner said Friday.
Friday's demonstration at both buildings also included mock "bargaining tables," where residents directed their complaints to large cardboard cutouts of federal housing officials, including Fannie Mae multifamily chief operating officer Michelle Evans and Federal Housing Finance Agency director Sandra Thompson.
Quality Hill is currently owned by Sentinel Real Estate Corporation, while Independence Towers is under receivership by Trigild, Inc.; loans at both properties are 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.
Tenant organizers said on Friday that the strike will continue indefinitely as they call for Fannie Mae and FHFA to bargain directly with the tenant unions. Residents at both complexes are also calling for new ownership, collectively-bargained leases and caps on rent rates.
As of October 14, nearly 100 residents of both towers were withholding rent, including 63% of Quality Hill tenants and 65% of Independence Towers tenants.
At Independence Towers, 57% of tenants are still participating in the rent strike as of Friday. Tenant organizers previously said that about 60% of residents have unionized.
According to KC Tenants, the dual strike also is the first Kansas City labor action to target Fannie Mae and FHFA directly. The city's most recent rent strike occurred in 1980, KC Tenants said.
Since the beginning of the strike, Sentinel personnel have been making some repairs around Quality Hill Towers, according to KC Tenants. However, some residents have also received late-fee notices, and the unions continue to prepare for possible eviction notices.
In a note to residents earlier this month, Sentinel referred to the late-fee notices as a "friendly fall reminder," calling the strike "misguided and short-sighted."
Neither Fannie Mae nor Trigild have engaged with residents since the strike began. However, FHFA representatives met with Kansas City council members last week after eight council members filed a letter in support of the strike.
Quality Hill tenants also said that building management has consistently ignored or deleted feedback and work orders, including recent complaints involving flooding and dirty, non-drinkable water.
Turner, who has lived at Quality Hill Towers for two years, said that every issue she's experienced in her apartment has been echoed by multiple neighbors. Recently, Turner's kitchen and living room flooded after she put in six consecutive work orders for plumbing issues, all of which she said were ignored.
"I had no help," Turner said. "I can't hear water running now. It freaks me out."
Once the flood spread to her entire home, it took Quality Hill three more days to send a plumber, Turner said.
"I was still bailing water," Turner said. "I didn't know where it was coming from. ... It was terrible. It smelled awful."
Independence Towers tenants recently received an unsigned letter from Fannie Mae, indicating that the federal agency will be taking over direct responsibility for some building repairs. Some tenants ripped up their copies of the letter as part of Friday's demonstration.
"You wouldn't live like this," Independence Towers resident Damien Hill, 20, said Friday, addressing Fannie Mae and Trigild personnel. "Your kids wouldn't live like this. Your grandparents wouldn't live like this. Why do you expect us to?"