Kade Gajdusek, Contributing Photographer

Sen. Richard Blumenthal spoke to tenant advocates on Thursday outside a federally subsidized apartment complex in West Rock, supporting a push by the newly formed Park Ridge Tenant Union for negotiations with the complex’s owner.

Blumenthal joined other speakers in calling on the company, Capital Realty Group, to meet with residents at the Park Ridge Apartments about unaddressed safety and maintenance concerns.

“I want the landlord of Park Ridge to hear you,” Blumenthal said. “You’re not alone. You’re not individually asking for anything.”

In his speech, Blumenthal criticized what he described as the company’s persistent neglect of its renters. He said Capital Realty Group has received substantial financing from the federal government while spending less than the standard amount per unit on maintenance each year.

The News could not independently verify the amount of federal funds directed to Park Ridge or Capital Realty Group’s profits from the complex.

The press conference followed an Aug. 6 letter that tenants delivered by hand to the Capital Realty Group’s office in Spring Valley, New York. The tenants union demanded formal recognition and a meeting with the firm — the same day organizers officially registered the Park Ridge Tenant Union, the city’s ninth tenants union, with New Haven’s Fair Rent Commission.

Capital Realty Group did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story about the tenants’ allegations.

“They’re receiving a bunch of federal funds while mistreating their tenants,” Luke Melonakos, the vice president of the Connecticut Tenants Union, told the News in a phone interview. “The boiler in the basement repeatedly shuts off during the winter and rattles the building, and there have been recurring sewage overflows. That raises serious questions about where the money is going.”

The complex, which houses elderly and disabled residents, operates under a project-based Section 8 contract, meaning most rental income is paid by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and also carries federally backed mortgages through Fannie Mae, Blumenthal said.

“I’m glad we’re getting the union in here, because we need it,” Joan Golden, a tenant of the Park Ridge Apartments, said. 

“What we have here now is worthless. They won’t do nothing — nothing,” she added, referring to Capital Realty Group.

At the press conference, tenants described recurring issues with the building’s plumbing, electrical work, boiler noises, heating, air conditioning and carpeting.

Golden was part of the group from the tenants union that delivered the letter requesting a meeting to the Capital Realty Group office in New York last week. When they arrived at the building, however, the facade was blacked out, the blinds closed and the building deserted, Golden said — with a letter on the door claiming that the office had been moved to another location nearby across the state border in New Jersey.

After trying the other location, which appeared to be abandoned, and returning to the New York office, they saw signs of people in the first building, Golden and others told the News.

A tow truck soon arrived, with the driver claiming to have been contracted by the owners of the building to remove them from the parking lot, according to a press release from tenants union organizers. Receiving the message, the tenants taped their letter to the front door.

Gerene Freeman, the vice president of the Park Ridge Tenant Union, said the renters’ dynamics with the landlord have been fraught since organizers won the support of a strong majority of tenants to form the union.

Building staff have tried to prohibit union flyers from being posted around the complex, restricted communal meeting spaces and told residents that the tenants union would try to get renters who did not join evicted, Freeman said.

She said the heat system makes a troubling noise.

“It started 8 years ago. As long as the heat is running, you hear this banging,” she said. “You can hear it outside. You can hear it all the way to the ninth floor.”

Capital Realty Group owns and manages thousands of federally subsidized affordable housing units nationwide. While the company touts its commitment to preserving and upgrading its properties, housing advocates across the country have accused it in recent years of neglecting maintenance despite receiving substantial federal subsidies.

In 2021, tenants at the company’s Concordia Place Apartments in Chicago went on a rent strike over infestations of mice, mold and mildew. In Detroit, tenants at another Capital Realty Group property are planning to unionize next week, Park Ridge advocates said.

Blumenthal said he would soon send an official letter imploring the company to enter negotiations with the Park Ridge Tenant Union.

The Park Ridge Apartments are located at 10 Hard St.