Rhode Island Tenants Demand Repairs and Organize Tenant Union Amid Housing Crisis

On Sunday afternoon tenants of Pioneer Investments LLC, one of the leading evictors in Rhode Island, gathered in West Warwick to deliver a letter of demands and announce that they’re organizing a tenant union to deal with the rats, bugs, mold, leaks, lack of heat, lack of water, and lead poisoning — some of which was detailed in Friday’s Providence Journal by reporter Amy Russo. On Sunday, tenants went public with the mistreatment they’ve suffered at the hands of Pioneer Investments, a major Rhode Island landlord, in the midst of the housing crisis.

Reclaim RI is organizing these and other tenants as part of their Homes for All campaign, which includes the Create Homes Act, legislation that would create a public developer “to build TONS of new public housing in the state.”

In filings with the Rhode Island Secretary of State, Pioneer Investments is recorded as owned by Anurag Sureka and Namita Singla, who both work in data security at CVS, according to their Linked In profiles.

Jimmy has lived in Rhode Island since May, and was threatened with eviction if he participated in the protest.

The letter of demands reads, in part:

“We, the tenants of Pioneer Investments, are requesting immediate repairs to our apartments. We have reached out to you about these repairs as individuals, but have had our requests ignored and mishandled. As you are aware, “taking rent for a residential unit obligates an owner to keep the unit up to minimum housing code standards (see R.I.G.L. 34-18-18)” per the Rhode Island Landlord-Tenant Handbook (p. 26).

“At present, we feel that our dwellings fail to meet these standards.”

Tenant demands include:

All dwellings meet the standards of the Lead Hazard Mitigation Law;
You will fix leaks from sinks, toilets, showers, and pipes — many of which are causing dampness in the walls, mold, and other damage — and ensure that sinks, toilets, and showers work properly;
Rodent and insect infestations — which are a common problem at your properties — are dealt with immediately;
Ensure that all electrical wiring, outlets, and fixtures are properly installed and maintained, and that tenants are only responsible for electricity use in their own dwellings;
Bathrooms have doors;
Furnaces work and are properly maintained;
Buildings are kept weathertight, watertight, and damp free, including exterior doors and windows that close tightly and are not broken;
That all above repairs be completed by licensed professionals; and,
Tenants be provided a reliable person to call when problems arise.

Reclaim RI leader and State Representative elect-Cherie Cruz (Democrat, District 58, Pawtucket) emceed the event. The event took place in Representative Thomas Noret‘s district (Democrat, District 25, Coventry, West Warwick). Representative Noret did did speak.

“We’re all here today to bring this housing crisis into he light… to bring this public health crisis into he light,” said Representative-elect Cruz. “Families are being lead poisoned [and] forced into sub-standard, sub-human housing conditions by predatory landlords such as Pioneer Investments.”

There were boos rom the crowd.

“That’s right,” continued Representative-elect Cruz. “Lead poisoning babies, having people live in mold-ridden houses. This has to stop. We can no longer allow these predatory behaviors to continue…”

Over the summer my daughter’s been in and out of walk-in visors to the doctor’s office – more than normal,” Kathryn Tucker, who was featured, with her daughter Abigail, in Amy Russo’s ProJo piece. “I’m talking once a week I was bringing her to the ER. I asked the doctor, ‘Do you think this has to do with this odor?’

“She said, ‘It very well could.’ … My brother who works in plumbing walked in one day and said, ‘This house is infested with mold. I can smell it. Know what I’m smelling.'”

Tucker got a phone call, after two and a half years of being ignored, from her landlord on Saturday, in response to the Amy Russo piece. “My grass just got cut for the first time in I don’t know how long.”

Jimmy moved to Rhode Island from Massachusetts in May. It took Pioneer Investments six months to keep their promise and fix his porch. “I talked to [the landlord] yesterday and he told me that if I participate in the rally, he was going to evict me,” said Jimmy, holding his young child.

“My door was backwards for six months. I had to fix it myself.” By backwards Jimmy meant that the key hole was on the inside of the door and the lock on the outside. Jimmy took to sleeping in the living room with his two kids and a bat nearby, in case anyone entered in the night.”

“It took two weeks before our front door was re-keyed and a month before all our electrical outlets worked,” said tenant Renee Horn. “Little did I know that was just the beginning. Here’s a short list. The windows: glass was broken, most locks were broken. The furnace went out last winter for four days. It happened to be a weekend and he doesn’t have a contract with HVAC. The plumbing. We had four days this winter that our sink was filling our bathtub from the drain coming up into the tub. We have rats. The house up the street [also a Pioneer Investments property] has rats. Their pet chinchilla of eight years was eaten by a rat. We have water leaking in the basement where or storage units are. Our things are getting ruined… amongst the piles of trash I was promised two and a half years ago was going to be removed…”

“If you take him to court he raises your rent or tries to evict you,” said a Pioneer Investments tenant from the crowd. “That’s what he did to us. Once we got him in court he raised the rent. He just raised it last January. Twice in one year? How do you do that?

“I have cancer. Liver cancer. There’s no cure. I’m fighting for my life to stay alive. I have to smell oil in my bedroom, every day and every night. I’m sick as a dog. Almost a year, begging this man…”

“I fear to ask for a copy of my lease for fear that I will be on their radar and have my rent increased…”

“My roommate, who lives with me and is on the lease, wanted to get a Rhode Island ID – she’s from Virginia.The lease that they gave us, according to the DMV, is invalid. It is not a legal document…”

“This past spring we went for a whole month with no propane, yet again. TO heat our hot water, to cook and shower – I work construction. I like to take a shower when I come home from work. I don’t like to smell like concrete…”

“In my room… it went off and we didn’t have light for six months… On the ceilings there’s these things. Sometimes they’re dripping. And it gets cold because it has holes and stuff…”