Tenants at an apartment building in Raytown, Missouri, launched a rent strike on Wednesday, the first day of October.
It follows months of organizing by the Bowen Tower Tenant Union, which formed in July, when residents say they grew fed up with mounting issues in their apartments and across the building, according to an announcement by citywide tenant union KC Tenants.
“We're living in Bowen Tower with (a) minimum of anything,” Cynthia Barlow, a union member who moved into the building in 2023, told KCUR ahead of the strike. “We're just going through this, and it's not fair. It's not fair to people.”
Bowen Tower is owned by Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments, a private real estate company based in California. For months now, tenants said, they have dealt with flooding apartments, water shutoffs, heating and cooling problems, and other issues they said go largely ignored or unfixed.
Members of the Bowen Tower Tenant Union, which represents 64% of occupied units in the 10-story building, said they want to meet with Charles Hill, president of Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments, to negotiate building-wide improvements, regular maintenance and caps on rent increases.
Union members said they met with Hill once, in August, when they said he committed to a formal agreement addressing their demands.
But, since the meeting, tenants said they’ve not heard from Hill again, and the issues that plague their apartments have gone unfixed.
“We have to get this man's attention, and this is the only way,” said Barlow, who is living in her second apartment in the building, after her first flooded last year. Barlow said maintenance staff did little to mitigate the problem, leading to mold in her unit, which then caused Barlow to get sick and lose her job as a result of missing work.
Alta/CGHS Real Estate Investments has more than 100 assets across the U.S., according to its website, which describes it as an “independent, value-add multifamily” company. Its strategy involves “creating amenity rich communities, attracting a stronger tenant base, and focusing on markets that show strength in employment opportunities and future development.”
The company did not respond to KCUR’s request for comment.
The Alta/CGHS Real Estate website also says the company works to identify “neighborhoods of higher demand and lower supply.”
But Barlow feels like the residents at Bowen Tower are just numbers to Hill and his company.
“Just like he’s hurting our pockets, we have to hurt his,” Barlow said.
‘This was the last resort’
Leandrea Nelson moved into the 10th floor of Bowen Tower earlier this year with her husband and four kids. In that time, Nelson said, they’ve dealt with cockroaches, broken appliances and flooding in their apartment. The elevators in the building also frequently break down, she said, which makes getting around difficult for her husband, who uses a wheelchair.
“It gets to that point where I don't have no place to move with me and my kids,” Nelson said. “This was the last resort.”
“When you hit them where it counts, that's when they start to listen,” she said.
On another floor, Elijah Brink said neither he nor his father can even sleep in their bedrooms. For his father, it’s because of flooding in his room. For Elijah, it’s because of a bed bug infestation.
“This is our apartment, we should be able to call this place home,” said Brink, who moved in in February 2024. “This place should be a sanctuary.”
Brink said other problems have included a lack of air conditioning over the last two summers and a failure to fix maintenance issues in a timely manner.
On top of that, Brink said, management is raising his rent from about $1,000 per month to $1,400.
“It really appears that Charles Hill does not care about the safe and affordable housing of his tenants, as he's tried to build his whole platform on,” Brink said. “We tried to negotiate with him in good faith, and at this point we're going to have to use our money as leverage.”
KC Tenants, a citywide tenants union that is supporting the Bowen Tower residents, said in a press release the rent strike will withhold about $34,000 from Alta Real Estate each month.
For tenants like Brink, the Bowen Tower Tenant Union, the first of its kind in Raytown, has been a source of hope.
“It's been a powerful and empathetic experience,” he said. “Property management tries to frame the tenant union as these villains, but, in reality, we want to help people who are just out here struggling. We're stronger together.”
