{"id":1022876,"date":"2026-08-25T09:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1022876\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T09:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:48:23","slug":"philly-tenant-unions-amid-housing-crisis-renters-are-pushing-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1022876\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly tenant unions: Amid housing crisis, renters are pushing back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accountability through bargaining<\/p>\n

Tenant organizers now have a new goal: to win the first collectively bargained lease in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Since February, the tenant union at The Emerson, located a block away from Florence Gardens, has been meeting with representatives from New Age Property Realty Group with hopes of setting that precedent, which they argue would give renters a new tool to hold landlords accountable.<\/p>\n

\"outsideThe Emerson, an apartment building on Chester Avenue in West Philadelphia (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

The union formed following a string of winters during which tenants lost heat because of power outages, they say, were the result of New Age opting not to replace the building\u2019s boiler after it failed. Instead, the company installed individual heating and cooling units in each apartment without upgrading the property\u2019s electrical system or installing basic insulation or weatherization, Montoya said.<\/p>\n

In the dead of winter, tenants say that left them without any heat for hours, and due to systemic inefficiencies, inflated electric bills when the building\u2019s system was working.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t afford a $250 PECO bill every winter for three months straight when I\u2019m trying to be conservative with the heat in the first place,\u201d said Gavin Bartlett, who works in the information technology department at Drexel University and rents a studio apartment at The Emerson.<\/p>\n

Most tenants in the 36-unit building are paying between $900 and $1,100 a month in rent.<\/p>\n

In the negotiated lease, tenants want to see language that sets a deadline for upgrading the building\u2019s heating system, including the installation of a new boiler.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the union is seeking a rent cap for the three years, deadlines for certain maintenance requests and financial penalties for when things like pest control and mold prevention issues aren\u2019t tackled in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

To date, New Age has not agreed to any of the union\u2019s demands, including to amend all existing lease contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll lease terms can be considered during the renewal process, as each lease functions as an individual contract between the tenant and the property owner. The owner will ultimately decide if they want to alter the agreement for the tenant to renew, or decline, and the tenant vacates,\u201d Hanson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that the union is putting out a false narrative, and attacking both ownership and management, in an effort to have their lease demands met,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"outsideThe Emerson, an apartment building on Chester Avenue in West Philadelphia managed by New Age Realty (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

Lauren Bourke, who helped start the union, said she remains steadfast in pursuing the group\u2019s goal to secure a collectively bargained lease.<\/p>\n

To her, there\u2019s no turning back now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the solidarity of our neighbors and people showing up that has given me the confidence to keep moving forward with this,\u201d Bourke said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Accountability through bargaining Tenant organizers now have a new goal: to win the first collectively bargained lease in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1022877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,12771,69104,39749,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1022876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-planphilly","tag-tenants-rights","tag-unions","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}