The Elmwood Tenant Union is demanding safe and affordable housing
"Tenants at 1890 Broad Street in Cranston have come together to negotiate a collectively bargained lease that is fair and equitable..."
Tenants at 1890 Broad Street in Cranston, in response to terrible living conditions and an unresponsive landlord, have formed the Elmwood Realty Tenants Union with the help of housing justice and tenant organizing group Reclaim RI. State Representative Cherie Cruz (Democrat, District 58, Pawtucket), who is an organizer with Reclaim RI, held a press conference with the tenants. According to public records the property is owned by Jeff Butler and his company, Elmwood Realty, LLC.
Cherie Cruz: I want to thank everyone for coming out to join us on this historic day when a majority of the tenants who live here, [10 tenants out of 17,] have come together to form the first tenant union in the private market. We don't want to take away from some of the great organizing that happened with public housing back in the seventies and eighties, but as far as we know, the Elmwood Realty Tenants Union is the first tenant union forming in the private market here at 1890 Broad Street.
We know we are currently in a housing crisis. Close to 40% of Rhode Islanders are renters and this is one step toward a place where renters and tenants are treated fairly and with dignity. With that being said, I'm going to move over to one of the leaders from the Elmwood Realty Tenants Union now.
Tenant Melissa Potter: Despite this blustery weather, we organized the majority of the tenants here to request that our landlord Elmwood Realty, LLC, come to the table to negotiate a collectively bargained lease that includes quality and timely repairs, safe housing conditions, and stable and fair rents free from retaliation.
Tenant Eugene Vasquez: We should not face rent increases in these conditions that we, as a union member, have lived with - for several months to the past two years. These conditions include broken windows when moving in, unreliable heating systems, major construction outside our doors, flooding, and more. We are requesting our landlord, Elmwood Realty, LLC, to meet with the Elmwood Realty Tenants Union to negotiate a collectively bargained lease that is fair and equitable.
Labor Organizer Aiden Kelly: I'm here today to support the tenants of 1890 Broad Street as they announce their majority-backed tenants union. I want to take a moment and commend the bravery of these tenants who have chosen to take action in the face of truly deplorable living conditions amid a vicious housing crisis in this state. In the face of constant threats of retaliation from the landlord, they have chosen courage. Fear is a powerful emotion that can often put up big roadblocks when trying to fight for basic human dignity and respect, but the tenants of 1890 Broad Street are showing us that community is more powerful than fear.
To choose people power over despair is so admirable, and I'm moved when I see regular people fighting for themselves, their children, and each other.
I call on all elected officials to hear the demands of these tenants. It is one thing to say you support quality and affordable housing. It is another thing to use your position of power to aid those who have had to fight back for their safety. You can take a look around and see why people are fighting back. You don't get many more clear physical examples of the need for more tenant rights in this state. We need those in official positions of power to keep their eyes on this campaign and make sure that no one is retaliated against for exercising their basic American rights of organization. No one should face unfair and illegal eviction threats. Please support these brave tenants who are paving the way for just housing in Rhode Island.
Besides Representative Cruz, other elected officials in attendance included State Senator Tiara Mack (Democrat, District 6, Providence), Representative Brandon Potter (Democrat, District 16, Cranston) [no relation to tenant Melanie Potter], and later, Cranston City Council Vice President Lammis Vargas (Ward 1).
Cherie Cruz: We know that when tenants come together, they can get what they need - fair and equitable housing. They're paying market rent and they're getting rent increases in the midst of this.
Tenant leaders have come together to negotiate a collectively bargained lease that is fair and equitable so we can start to chip away at this housing crisis here in Rhode Island. Once the press conference is over we're going to send a copy [of our unionization notice] to the landlord by email and in person at his office so he's notified of the union and asked to come to the negotiating table for fair and equitable leases.
Melissa Potter: I can't express how happy I am that all of us have been able to say our piece. It's nice to finally be heard.
Cherie Cruz: One of the things we do is advocate with Code Enforcement, which many of the tenants have already done. Some have lived here for close to two years and nothing has happened.
Tenant unions are organizing across the country. Many tenants told us, “I've been fighting alone” and we know that when they fight alone, they get picked off one by one. But we also know that when they come together collectively they're stronger, can get the things they need to be safe and be treated with dignity and respect.
Steve Ahlquist: Can you talk about the response from the City of Cranston to some of the complaints that have been made?
Melissa Potter: What response?
Steve Ahlquist: Tell me about that. You bring your issue to city hall or someone in power and somebody's supposed to do something, but you get no response?
Melissa Potter: Nothing. Our honorable mayor has been on the premises several times and has introduced himself to me. I’m not one for politics. I was leaving for work one afternoon. He was touring the property and asked me how I liked living there. I was like, “Are you looking around you? How would you like living here?” But there's nothing else out there - and this is my community, so why should I have to move?
The landlord, Jeff Butler, should fix his property. If he can't maintain the property that he has, he shouldn't be allowed to buy more. Why should he be able to put other people in the same predicament that we've been dealing with? It's not fair.
Steve Ahlquist: You all live on the first floor because the second floor is condemned?
Melissa Potter: I don't know if condemned is the right word, but there's nobody upstairs.
Steve Ahlquist: There's no way to get upstairs.
Brandon Potter: It was maybe three years ago that I was out here with some of the residents when the initial condemnation of this property happened - when the second-floor landing collapsed. The mayor was intimately aware of that because we pushed him to house those people in a hotel while they could figure out where to go next. Some people that I talked to here didn't have any relatives or family or friends that they could go and stay with. To see a property have that initial problem with the second floor, and then come back here three years later and see it in this condition speaks volumes.
A takeaway for me, at least, and I won't speak for anybody else, is that it's very clear that the Mayor's administration is not going to protect people in these conditions. That's why it's so important that tenants organize and exercise their rights together.
In 2021, when the property was condemned, Mayor Hopkins promised the 39 families being evicted that they would not become homeless, a promise that became difficult to keep a month or so later when benefits were cut off for 11 of the families. Landlord Jeff Butler has made frequent donations to Mayor Hopkins’ campaigns.
Tenant Audrey Gordon: My apartment flooded, and if you look right now, the door is still open on the second-floor apartment above mine. I've been calling and letting the landlord know that it's still open after it flooded. Animals can come in there and get into my apartment.
Cherie Cruz: How many times have you flooded?
Audrey Gordon: Four times. Maybe five. Flooding in my kitchen, then in my living room. And instead of cutting it out and venting it to get all the wetness out or just cutting it out in general, they just painted over it. And they still have the door open so it could flood again.
I got lucky. My daughter, who is G-tube fed, was in the living room when it started raining into my house. There's not much I can do when she's hooked up to a machine except to roll her and the machine out of the way. It was a lot. There were like five buckets of water that we were dumping out. I had the nurse there with us trying to clean up the whole mess. And the ceiling hasn't been addressed and the door is still open.
Cherie Cruz: Have you guys ever lived without heat here while you've been here?
Audrey Gordon: Yes.
Melissa Potter: Yes. All winter long we've had little to no heat. We've been living off space heaters. Heat's supposed to be included in our rent.
Tenant Stephanie Severino: Everything gets covered up instead of fixed, they just put a bandaid on it.
Brandon Potter: This is a property owner who knew he was buying a property that was going to require a major investment.
He's got this huge pile of debris right here, which I can't imagine is all that expensive to remove. He's got a huge gaping hole in front of that property, which is probably not all that expensive to fill. People should have a normal standard of living and [landlords] need to be held accountable.
Cherie Cruz: It sounds like you were suffering alone, but now you have each other's back. How does that feel?
Stephanie Severino: It feels good to have the support. It's good to know that the tenants are with you and that they support you and what you know is right.
Boston Globe Reporter Alexa Gagosz: There were rent increases as well. What did those look like?
Stephanie Severino: $50 a month. It was $900 before, now it's $950. That's for a one bedroom.
Melissa Potter: That's better than what I pay. I pay $1250. Rents aren't consistent across the board.
The Public’s Radio Reporter Nina Sparling: What's the response like when you ask for repairs?
Audrey Gordon: You get ignored, or he'll tell you flat out to call your renter's insurance. Jeff Butler says, “Call Elmwood Realty. Don't call me.” He tells me to call the front desk instead of talking to him.
Cherie Cruz: He also lists Spring Street Realty as his business and some of the permits here were pulled under that company. But the tenants pay Elmwood Realty.
Aiden Kelly: The landlord has a history of retaliation and we want to make sure that this doesn't happen here.
Steve Ahlquist: Where would I find that history of retaliation?
Cherie Cruz: There's a lawsuit claiming that he had retaliated against two other Elmwood tenants. The ACLU and Center for Justice have picked up that lawsuit. When Jeff Butler found out tenants were talking to Reclaim RI organizers and when they started to organize, the landlord sent out emails and put up a sign - that's over there on that door that said, if you talk to any of them, basically your tenancy will be up.
He was told by a judge, in an order, to take that sign down. As you can see, that sign is still up there. That's the constant threat tenants face when they ask for the basic things to be fixed while they pay rent every month. He's a pretty ruthless actor when it comes to this. We've seen him send five guys to a door to tell people to leave and put up a 30-day notice that's not from a court.
Cherie Cruz: He owns properties all over the state from - Pawtucket to West Warwick to Coventry - and here in Cranston and Warwick. That's what we're looking at. There are a lot of tenants who have been cycled out, been retaliated against, living in fear, and who have had to move. Those who stayed - because it's their community, they want to fight, they want to live here, and they want to get things fixed - they're staying to organize.
We're hoping that other tenants hear this and join in. Don't be afraid. In our state, we have a right to organize. When you organize and the landlord tries to retaliate, it's against the law. We want people to move past that fear and know that they deserve better. They deserve to live in safe and dignified housing and should not have to face retaliation or fear tactics just for asking to get the basic things fixed. That's what we're doing here. The tenants here are going to need your support he'll come in the form of an eviction notice and other things to try to retaliate.
Eugene Vasquez: I think there needs to be a way to ensure that it's enforced, because we can put all these things into place, but what's stopping him from doing these things? Not for nothing, I lost a lot of faith in this state. I got put here by DCYF right before my case closed. I was constantly calling my social worker - every single day - she was telling me this is an amazing place to live and that she would be super happy here and all this other stuff. She pushed me away until my case closed and now there's nobody to turn to. I just turned 21 in February.
Steve Ahlquist: So you aged out of the system in February. You're on your own.
Reclaim RI Co-Chair Daniel Denvir: What do you guys think Jeff Butler is going to say about this on TikTok?
Melissa Potter: He's probably not going to be happy. He's going to have his panties in a bunch for sure. And you know what? I don't care because I'm not scared of him. He doesn't care. Why would we? Empty barrels make the most noise. He can say whatever he wants.
Cherie Cruz: That underscores the bravery of the tenants coming together.
Melissa Potter: We're not asking for anything crazy. I'm asking for windows. I'm not asking for a hot tub in the moat.
Cherie Cruz: We see other properties like this and some of the same bad actors. We know who they are and yet it keeps happening. We strongly believe that when tenants come together, change is going to happen. You heard from the tenants. What's the city doing? We've seen the mayor come out. People have reported this. Code enforcement came out to the building. Inspectors come out. When is it going to end? When's the tipping point? Tenant power is the tipping point.
Melissa Potter: We've all lost faith in the state because they're well aware of the situation and nothing gets better. I've had the fire department come out here thinking we're squatting and we're like, “Nope, we're paying rent. We're not squatting.”
Cherie Cruz: Some people say they saw it when it was condemned a couple of years and it looks worse now.
Steve Ahlquist: It looks way worse. I was here three years ago.
Audrey Gordon: When I first moved in, it looked livable.
The Trench
One day Melissa Potter came home to discover a large trench filled with water and mud, preventing her from using her front door. Sometimes when it rains the water threatens to enter her apartment. She uses the rear door to come and go now.
Melissa Potter: I'm almost embarrassed to invite people over. I don't bring anybody here. My nephew cries because he wants to come and spend the night but if something happened to him... that little boy is my world.
Cherie Cruz: Did you get a notice about the trench?
Melissa Potter: We get notices about nothing. We get emails about stupid stuff, like not throwing our garbage in the construction dumpster. Oh my god. You're worried about trash in the construction dumpsters, but you're not worried about the rest of the property. You're not worried about our safety. This has been out here like this for over a year now. He tore down all these trees before the end of the summer and just left them there.
Audrey Gordon: Last year I fell on my stomach on the rubble while I was pregnant and my daughter was born at 26 weeks. I went to the hospital that week and I found out that my cervix funneled on the inside and I ended up delivering my daughter at 26 weeks. She was in the NICU for three months. I was so distracted with everything that was going on with her. The last thing on my mind was going after him for what was going on with her. There was just so much chaos in the midst of that.
Cherie Cruz: The goal is to keep going and keep building tenant power until we can start impacting this housing crisis for the better because it's only getting worse. Our rents are the highest in the country. Our housing stock is old and not getting better. Tenant power is where it's at. I'm so proud of these tenants who came together and unionized.
Daniel Denvir: Elwood Tenant Union is the first chapter of the newly created Rhode Island Tenant Union. What does it look like, this thing starting right here today as it scales across the state for the coming years?
Cherie Cruz: Well, it's big. 40% of Rhode Island are renters. We know what the potential could be for just Elmwood Realty. He's boasted about owning up to 350 units. So that chapter alone could grow up to 350 tenants strong.
This is contagious. People are living in fear, but hopefully, the bravery here helps them to realize there's another option when state and city officials aren't listening. There's another option - band together and keep growing. We know who the bad actors are, the slumlords around the state. Rents are rising unjustifiably. Tenants have rights, but they also have the power to bring landlords to the negotiating table and to use the labor union model to collectively bargain for fair rents - for quality and timely repairs and all those things.
This could just be statewide. We're a small enough state where we can make a big change in the housing market and also improve the housing stock and our supply. We know that a lot of times these slums will not fill all of their units. They'll leave them vacant. So is there a supply problem? Are they purposely leaving them empty? What's going on? Some of our tenants tell us that landlords never rent out two out of the four units or three out of the five units. We are starting to hear some of these stories and starting to think “What is going on here?” Tenants have the power to make a dent in this housing crisis when they come together to negotiate and collectively bargain.
Good interview. Thank you.