In a brick apartment block on the east side, a laminated sheet is taped to the lobby mailboxes. It lists the building’s forty-one units, with a green dot beside each that has joined the tenants’ association.
There are 38 dots. The landlord has been asked to meet. He has so far declined.
Tenants’ unions have grown quickly as rents have risen and vacancies have fallen. Their model is simple: act together. By withholding rent into a shared escrow account, filing coordinated repair requests and negotiating as a single party, tenants say they have won leverage individual renters never had.
“A single tenant is easy to ignore,” said one organiser. “Forty-one is a meeting.”
