BILLINGS — A midtown Billings apartment complex is forming a tenant union in an effort to protect themselves from what they call unsafe living conditions.
Residents at Rose Park Plaza Apartments, which is owned by California-based Capital Realty Group, said that maintenance repairs are constantly delayed and that a remodeling was done incorrectly, leaving holes in their walls.
Watch this video to hear from residents:
"Unsafe," said resident Sara Graff when asked about her living conditions. "There is obviously some maintenance, long-term problems that have been failed to be addressed."
Graff and other residents, including Stephanie Adams, said that complaints have been ignored by their landlord.
"It's unacceptable," said Adams. "It's just gotten to be too much."
Graff's daughter, Kaelin Mathis, said that the lack of attention has created a nearly inhabitable environment.
"We're paying to live here and these are not livable conditions," Mathis said. "It's just not safe."
Graff and Mathis said it's been disheartening to have their constant complaints seemingly ignored.
"They have continued to disregard our human dignity," Graff said.
"I think it's a really good example of abuse of power," Mathis said. "These people looked at us as people that needed a low-income place that we're desperate for a place to live, and they can treat us however they want."
The residents at Rose Park Plaza aren't alone. They are the seventh Capital Realty Group-owned property nationwide to form a tenant union in the last two months.
It's happening elsewhere in Montana. In Bozeman, one tenant union now sits at around 500 members from both low-income apartments and trailer parks.
Bozeman-based Benjamin Finegan is an organizer with the National Tenant Union Federation. He said forming unions like these can help tenants protect themselves with legal resources.
"The laws are not set up to have tenants' backs," Finegan said. "It's important to note that these unions make it so that the power is really in the collective of the tenants."
He said those numbers can put pressure on those in charge, with the ultimate goal of forming a collectively bargained lease.
"What that means is that the tenants and the landlord sit down at the bargaining table and agree line by line to everything in the lease," Finegan said.
Finegan said that in extreme cases, rent strikes could take place, though he doesn't expect that to happen at Rose Park Plaza.
"We're not asking for the stars," Graff said. "We're just asking for basic human rights."
It's a request that residents feel is more than fair, and they remain confident that the union will lead to change.
"I really feel like the union has the capability and the strength to get our needs met," Adams said.
The group is also pushing for more membership. Currently, 60 percent of the filled apartments are already in on the union, but they are holding a meeting at the complex on Friday at 5 p.m. to boost membership.
"Not only is this going to affect me and my mom, who I love, but other people too," Mathis said. "That's what I'm fighting for."
MTN News left two messages with Capital Realty seeking comment but received no response.
