Tenants stage rent strike in desperate, last effort to reach apartment owners to discuss mutually beneficial agreement for tenants and the company

 

Hyattsville, MD — Immigrant advocacy organization CASA, in solidarity with tenants of Bedford and Victoria Station Apartments, march to ROSS Management Co. to declare a rent strike. The apartment tenants are unable to pay rent due to COVID-19 and in a desperate effort to grab the attention of the management company, will deliver a letter asking for a meeting with the management company and stage a rent strike.

CASA and Bedford and Victoria Station tenants have tried every way possible to speak with the owners, Arbor Realty Trust, and management, ROSS Management Co., through email, phone call, and mail but have been unsuccessful. A rent strike is the last option. The tenant committee voted unanimously to go on rent strike in the hope of showing the owners their desperate needs.

WHAT: Neighborhood rally and march to management office

WHEN: Saturday, October 24, 2020 @ 11:00 am

WHERE: The courtyard in front of 1420 Kanawha Street, Hyattsville, MD. The march will meet in the courtyard and then proceed to the management office on 1400 University Blvd, Hyattsville, MD.

WHO: Bedford and Victoria Station Apartment Tenants and Advocates, CASA

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many tenants have lost their jobs and therefore their incomes. Despite these circumstances, many tenants have continued to pay rent but at the cost of not putting food on the table or borrowing money from friends and family and going into debt. Some families are already in thousands of dollars of debt because they have been borrowing money to pay rent.

Conditions in the Bedford and Victoria Station apartments are substandard and maintenance requests frequently go ignored. Meanwhile, the owners, Arbor Realty Trust, rake in compensation with little regard for the tenants that pay them. The owners and managers (ROSS Management Co.) show little interest in remedying violations but great interest in pressuring rent payments.and no interest in meeting with tenants. The tenants are asking for the owners to negotiate in good faith with tenants and discuss a mutually beneficial agreement for tenants and the company, as authorized by county and state law. The tenants ask the owners for reasonable rent abatement, better maintenance, and no rent increases/evictions for a year.

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With over 100,000 members across the states of Maryland, Virginia, and South Central Pennsylvania, CASA is the largest member-based Latino and immigrant organization in the mid-Atlantic region. Visit us at www.wearecasa.org and follow us on Twitter at @CASAforall