Kingsbury Tenants Unionize to Demand Livable Apartments, Functioning Services, End to Harassment

Trenton, NJ – Residents at Kingsbury Towers Apartments have formed the Kingsbury Tenants Association to demand livable conditions in their apartments. With support from the Greater Trenton Democratic Socialists of America (GTDSA) and the Central Jersey Tenants Union, they submitted a Demand Letter to L&M Property Management, which oversees the complex.

Kamera Blue, Kingsbury tenant for a decade, said, “I feel we should have a tenants association to advocate for proper living standards and conditions as a whole. If we tenants stick together, we can get the answers we’re looking for and the help we deserve.”

Tenants and organizers noted that the building’s heating has failed multiple times this winter, with frigid temperatures outdoors.

Kingsbury tenant Aaron Justin Houghton said, “The heat doesn’t work in the living room. We have a leak in the window.

Houghton added, “The faucet at the bathtub is leaking. We’ve put a report on that, but it never got fixed.”

The demand letter notes, “Kingsbury is plagued by mold, leaky plumbing, faulty heating and cooling, and more. Mice and cockroach infestations make conditions effectively unlivable.”

The letter states the prior management company “didn’t use funds to fix anything, outright manipulated the books and committed money laundering, and tenants today still face eviction threats for issues [related to this] out of their responsibility.”

“Tenants have been harassed for speaking up,” the letter said. “Tenants are instructed to temporarily vacate their residence, without being told where to go, how long they must stay there, or what conditions to expect.”

Yeou-Shiuh Hsu, longtime tenant organizer with Central Jersey Tenants Union, said, “The myriad of housing problems Kingsbury tenants have outlined in the demand letter – poor HVAC, faulty plumbing, respiratory problems resulting from mold or pests – are all too common. And the unfortunate reality is, landlords would rather squeeze rent from tenants and spend as little of it as possible on rehabilitating housing into livable domiciles.”

The tenants’ demands included immediate maintenance to address inconsistent heating and cooling, leaky pipes and inconsistent elevator operation and structural damage, as well as installation of working security cameras and extermination of rats and bedbugs.

Tenants additionally demanded cancellation of back rent in view of the poor living conditions and bookkeeping and rent abatement if essential services failed.

See full text of the letter here.

The Central Jersey Tenants Union organizes tenants to collectively fix our living conditions and to build power to make sure working class tenant interests are met more broadly.

Greater Trenton DSA is the local, Trenton-area branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few. For more on the Greater Trenton DSA, and our regional chapter, Central NJ DSA, visit our website.