On Oct. 14, members of the Charles Place Tenant Union and Curtis Arms Tenant Union delivered a letter signed by over 200 tenants of the two Providence apartment complexes, calling for the buildings’ owners to meet with tenants and negotiate an agreement addressing tenants’ concerns about their living conditions.
The letter gave Standard Communities — the national affordable housing provider that owns the apartment buildings and a total of $6 billion in real estate assets across the country — an Oct. 28 deadline to respond to their request. The company responded and is planning to come to Rhode Island to negotiate, according to Grace Harvey, a strategic campaigner for Reclaim Rhode Island, a housing justice non-profit that helps organize the R.I. Tenants Union.
The CPTU and the CATU worked with the broader Rhode Island Tenants Union to organize the letter and issue demands…