RAYTOWN, Mo. — Across the Kansas City metro, renters in apartment buildings are forming tenant unions to fight for better living conditions.
Bowen Tower residents are the latest tenants to call for change. Residents Shelley Bell and Tina McDonald said they've endured bad living conditions for years.
"We haven't had air, we haven't had elevators," McDonald said. "My apartment flooded from the floor up."
"I had so much water in my apartment, little fish could have rolled through," Bell said.
Their calls for changes have gone unanswered. Their hope is that forming a tenant's union is how their voices will be heard.
"All these years I've paid all this money for rent," McDonald said. "I deserve a decent place to live."
The Bowen Tower union's formation comes after the Independence Towers' union received $1.3 million for repairs. Landlords at the Independence Towers agreed to demands in June, ending an eight-month-long rent strike.
"We have learned that when we build a certain number of tenants up in the union, and when we help to support them organize their buildings, they're able to leverage a power that has been unseen before," KC Tenants organizer Mell Gray said.
KC Tenants is working to form several more unions in the metro, joining a growing nationwide movement.
"While it may not be the main standard in the past few years, we're seeing it become a point of leverage and a point of conversation around the country," Gray said.
Gray explained the success at Independence Towers was the start for change in the metro.
"Tenants' voices deserve to be heard, and that hasn't always been the case," Gray said.
KSHB 41 News reached out to the owner of Bowen Tower on Wednesday and Thursday for comment, but did not hear back.
—
KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne covers issues surrounding government accountability, solutions and consumer advocacy. Share your story with Isabella.
