Tenants of an apartment complex in the Niantic section of East Lyme are calling out management for proposing rent hikes of up to $900.
Windward Village apartment complex was sold to a new owner in June who wants to increase the rent.
Resident Jean Church said she and other residents didn’t find out about the sale until after it happened, with letters regarding the sale slipped into resident mailboxes.
“It was, like, sneaky,” Church said.
Church and her daughter Kristen, have lived at Windward village for about two and a half years. Church said she doesn’t want to move but may have to if her rent increases by hundreds of dollars come winter.
“There's everything. The bank I belong to, there's the theater to go see the plays. Now [in the] summertime, we go to the beach at night,” Church said.
But when Shelton-based real estate firm Alpha Capital Funds purchased the apartments in June, things changed.
“They do a terrible job in this place. They're making a complete mess,” Church said.
Amenities and communal furniture were removed from the hallways, while a slapdash paint job left the stairwells and hallways’ carpets coated in splatters of white paint.
East Lyme’s Fair Rent movement
Of Windward Village’s 60 apartments, about 40 are rented by tenants who are seniors and disabled, according to Eastern Connecticut’s Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity. Residents teamed up with the Center to urge the town to establish a Fair Rent Commission.
“They're standing up and saying, that's not fair, and that's not right. It's awe inspiring,” Center Director Beth Sabilia said. “But if we can avoid having to put people in the position of acting as a warrior for kind of, what's fair and really establish it from the outset, I think we’ll be better.”
Connecticut does not have many protections for renters against no fault evictions, when landlords opt not to renew a lease through no fault of the tenant.
There are protections against excessive rent increases for elderly and disabled renters, but a local Fair Rent Commission would field complaints. However, there is no Fair Rent Commission in East Lyme.
For communities without commissions, residents have few options: file a lawsuit against the landlord, or petition the municipality to form a Fair Rent Commission, Sabilia said.
Alpha Capital Funds, the new owner of Windward Village, was previously under fire for a similar situation reported by Connecticut Public at a Hartford apartment complex last year.
“Prior to purchasing the Windward Village Apartments, we completed a comprehensive market analysis that determined these rents are significantly under market value for the area,” Alpha Chief Executive Officer Tyler Smith said in a statement.
The proposed rent spikes are also related to the increase in utility, tax and insurance costs nationwide, Smith said.
“We can empathize with the fear of rent increases and moving, and we are actively working with elderly and disabled residents on their individual circumstances,” Smith said.
Board of Selectmen takes action
A 2022 state law change requiring communities with 25,000 or more residents to form fair rent commissions. East Lyme doesn’t meet the requirement, but Church and her fellow Windward Village residents are working with the Board of Selectmen to establish a Commission.
During a Wednesday, Aug. 7 meeting, East Lyme’s Board of Selectmen will discuss establishing a Fair Rent Commission and plan to schedule a public hearing on the matter, but Glickstein said the legal process often takes too long.
“It takes time. Well, we don't have time. Our leases are coming due,” Glickstein said. “The state's been in operation all these hundreds of years. Where have you been? So now, don't tell me they need time. They've had all the time.”
Windward Village resident Judith Glickstein said there’s talk of forming a tenants union, but she’s been working with local representatives in the state legislature, urging action at a state level.
When she moved in about a decade ago, Windward Village was a middle-income complex.
“If they want to increase a little bit at a time, we understand that. I totally understand. But not these eight, nine and $1,000 a month,” Glickstein said. “People cannot absorb it, where most of the people living here are on fixed incomes.”
