After several months of intense organizing, tenant leaders of the Clay Arsenal Renaissance Apartments (CARA) have won some major victories! On December 14, 2017, over 100 people, including Mayor Bronin, filled the fellowship hall of Union Baptist Church for the second public action in this No More Slumlords campaign.
Fed up with severe mice infestation, widespread mold, broken windows, and other health and safety violations, tenant leaders, supported by the Christian Activities Council (CAC), began organizing. On July 11, 2017, tenants publically called out their property owner, Emmanuel Ku, for neglecting the property despite getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax abatements and $1.6m in federal subsidies.
The seven-month determined actions of the tenant leaders have forced Ku to do much-needed repairs; however, many of them have been shoddy and substandard. Thus, the tenant leaders held a second public action to ask Mayor Bronin and the city to take more stringent action.
Specifically, the tenants asked Mayor Bronin to begin enforcing the Certificate of Apartment Occupancy (CAO) policy that requires Emmanuel Ku to have a CAO for each unit. Failure to do so results in a $99 per day, per unit fine. Mayor Bronin committed to doing this and has already issued a notice to Ku.
The tenants worked with City Councilwoman Glendowlyn Thames and passed a resolution calling for the tax abatement committee to review Mr. Ku’s abatement contract. The Mayor committed to supporting the termination of the tax abatement agreement if the committee finds Ku to be out of compliance, and to make the details of the review public in 30 days. As a part of Ku’s abatement review, Mayor Bronin also agreed to triple the number of CARA units inspected from 10% to 30%.
Moreover, in a letter addressed to Teri Morrison and Joshua Serrano, key tenant leaders, Mayor Bronin informed them that the city’s Development Services team is preparing revisions to Hartford’s municipal code that will “allow Hartford to be more proactive when it comes to housing code enforcement.”
Congressman John Larson, who could not be at the action due to a scheduling conflict, sent a pre-recorded message. “I’ve written to the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson,” said Larson, “to ask how a landlord with a nation-wide reputation be allowed or found eligible to purchase and manage another HUD property when he had a nation-wide reputation of negligence.”
As the African proverb goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Indeed, these organized tenant leaders, together, have made huge strides in getting change that not only benefits their families but the broader Hartford community.
