Medford Tenants Unionize In Fight Over Apartment Conditions

MEDFORD, MA — The issues Mary Stathos describes are straight from every renter's nightmare: cockroaches, rodents, mold, broken amenities, safety hazards. Her kitchen floor peeled up, exposing rot underneath. Pieces of her neighbor's ceiling were falling off when she was over for dinner.

There were times the building's front door did not lock, and others it locked tenants in, forcing them out through the fire escape. Renters had to pony up $3 just to see if the washer and dryer were working because there were never any "out of order" signs.

The heat never shuts off in her building. Next door, they depend on space heaters to get through the winter. And the property manager of both buildings, Alpha Management, has not done anything about it, Stathos said.

"Many people have been living with these conditions for years," Stathos told Patch.

Alpha denies any wrongdoing. The company has owned the two buildings at 53 and 63 Fellsway West for about 10 years, a period over which Stathos and other tenants say Alpha has ignored repeated requests for maintenance filed with employees and through an online portal.

Daniel Briansky, an attorney for Alpha Management, said the only maintenance request from those buildings was handled last week. In an email shared with Patch, dated Feb. 20, the tenant confirmed repairs were completed to his satisfaction.

"As a landlord, we have to address any problems regarding the condition of the apartments that the tenants complain about," Briansky said. "The building inspector doesn't have any code violations for these buildings on record."

"They are supposed to be keeping up with this, and they're not."

Not everyone is happy with the job Alpha is doing. Stathos said she rallied 15 people to sign a demand letter protesting the conditions in both buildings, and about 30 people are involved in organizing in some capacity. Calling themselves the Alpha Tenants Union, they have been recognized as a member organization by the Greater Boston Tenants Union.

Their demands include no rent hikes or evictions during the COVID-19 crisis, safe and healthy living conditions for all tenants and a 24-hour response time after maintenance requests are filed. Alpha Management — whose owner, Anwar Faisal, has a lengthy history of housing code violations and lawsuits — says the effort is a ploy to squeeze extra perks out of the company.

"[Stathos] wants to renew her lease, she wants no increases, she wants the landlord to give free rent," Briansky told Patch. "They want free laundry, they want free parking. To operate and manage a building, it takes money."

The union came close to finding common ground with Alpha last week, when both parties scheduled a meeting for Friday. But the property manager pulled out after the union balked at compiling a list of tenants and their complaints.

Briansky said without a list, it is difficult for Alpha to determine the current state of each apartment. He called into question the validity of some pictures shared by tenants.

"[Those are] some terrible pictures, but we don't know what apartment they were, when they were taken, how long these conditions have been around," he said. "Our concern is the tenant has a livable apartment that's not in any violation of any of the codes."

But Stathos said the request was an attempt by Alpha to settle the complaints without getting the city involved.

"They are supposed to be keeping up with this, and they're not...we were willing to do that if Alpha was willing to not raise our rent," she said. "But they are not willing to do that."

"An effective, responsive and transparent system."

The Medford City Council heard two motions Tuesday related to the conditions at the Fellsway West properties. Councilor Zac Bears introduced both motions, one of which pertained to the process of reporting code violations to the city.

"We need to do more to make sure the city has an effective, responsive and transparent system for making sure residents can get health and safety inspections," Bears said. The motion was referred to the Housing Subcommittee following a 7-0 vote.

The second motion called on the Council to directly address the "serious health and safety problems reported by residents at Alpha Management's properties on Fellsway West." The Council voted 7-0 to work with the city administration, as well as the Building and Health Departments, to respond to those complaints.

Bears told Patch the city has new software allowing for online submissions of complaints and requests for inspections.

"The mayor's office is planning to make it clear how to access that system on the city website after I discussed it with them," he wrote in an email to Patch.

"It's not as if we're evicting 50 people a week."

Members of the union also contend Alpha unfairly started eviction proceedings against tenants as soon as the moratorium ended. Antoinette Huguley told Patch she received a 48-hour notice in December informing her she owed back rent of $12,000.

"I felt that was impossible because I had a trustee who distributed rent every month," she said.

Huguley lost her job in June and said she communicated with Alpha in November once she started having trouble paying rent. A representative from the company told her she could pay as much as she was able to at the time, Huguley said.

But in court, Alpha told a different story. The back rent went up to $15,000 at a hearing in January, and the company claimed she never reached out to them about her financial situation, Huguley said.

"The thought of facing homelessness, I felt alone," she said.

The Greater Boston Tenants Union helped Huguley secure $1,300 for February's rent, and she said she could pay for March as well. During this time, she said Alpha refused to address a rodent issue in her apartment unless she went through the company's lawyer.

"I had to stuff my shirt in a hole behind the oven to prevent rats," she said. Pictures from her apartment show some attempted fixes by Alpha, such as blue pest control packets and a gold plug in one of the holes.

Alpha Management said one tenant in Medford was subjected to eviction proceedings after owing "over $20,000 over a year." The company would not identify the tenant by name but said it is working on a payment plan with the city of Medford, and she is still living in the apartment.

"It's not as if we're evicting 50 people a week," Briansky said. "We didn't kick anybody out."

Briansky maintained the company's primary responsibility is the upkeep of its apartments, which requires money from tenants.

"If you tell me you're not going to pay rent, what are we supposed to do — look the other way and go down the tubes?" he said.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story stated that the Greater Boston Tenants Union gave Huguley money for rent. The union helped secure the funding, but it did not come from the group directly.