At their Oct. 18 rally, Quality Hill tenant union members demanded to meet with Federal Housing Finance Authority director Sandra Thompson, depicted in the poster on the right (Mili Mansaray/The Beacon).
Buckets of brown sink water, overflowing roach traps and photographs of clogged bathtubs lined the entrance to the leasing office at Quality Hill Towers. At their most recent rally, tenants brought their frustrations straight to management’s door.
George Pacheco carried two-gallon jugs of murky water from his apartment.
“I gave my daughter a glass of water out of my sink and it was so dirty that she refuses to even come and stay in the apartment,” he said.
On Oct. 1, tenants at Quality Hill Towers and Independence Towers launched a rent strike, demanding maintenance repairs, collectively bargained leases and a national 3% rent cap on all buildings that receive federal financing.
At their Oct. 18 rally, tenants said they plan to recruit more tenants to join the rent strike if the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency does not engage with them and meet their demands. Although Missouri offers no legal protections for striking tenants and they face risks of eviction or lawsuits, leaders with KC Tenants say the unions are preparing to rally more renters to join their movement.