Since December, renters in six apartment buildings in Tacoma have voted to form unions in an effort to negotiate better leases with their landlords.
These tenants represent just a small fraction of all renters in the city. But organizers say the movement is growing and that plans are underway to unionize more buildings and create? an organized tenant movement in Tacoma.
“The end goal, and what we’re really striving towards, is showing landlords that Tacoma is a tenant union town,” said Isaac Galvon, who lives in the Marguerite Apartments in Tacoma, which recently voted to unionize along with two other buildings in the neighborhood. “If they want to be here, they’re going to have to deal with tenant unions.”
Of the six Tacoma buildings that have voted to unionize this year, five are owned by a couple that lives in California. The tenants cite numerous grievances related to maintenance and fees — many of which stem from what they describe as a sense of apathy from their "absentee landlords.”
“They only view us as a source of income, as a money pit,” Galvon said. “And we’re people. We live here, we work.”
The renters are demanding that their landlords standardize rent across all units; allow pets at no additional cost; freeze rent increases in all units for two years; respond to maintenance requests in a more timely manner; respect tenants’ right to organize; stop posting notices with renters’ private information on doors; and cease the collection of “extraneous management service fees and fines.”
The landlords have thus far refused to meet the tenants at the bargaining table.
But organizers say they plan to keep applying pressure. And a rent strike is not off the table.
“Eventually it will be in their best interest to come and talk with us,” said Ben Everett, a resident of New York apartments in Tacoma, another unionized building.
Management tumult
Last summer, Galvon said his building’s basement laundry room became overrun with fleas.
“It was scary,” he said. “I’d come down here and I’m like, two steps in I’ve got fleas up to my knees.”
The management company at the time sent someone to spray for fleas. But Galvon said it didn’t get rid of the problem and that he and other tenants ultimately had to buy bug bombs and take care of it themselves.
“We had to do the work that they should have very well been responsible for,” Galvon said.
The building has been through three different management companies in less than a year. Galvon and other tenants say the rapid turnover has led to a host of communication issues and dropped balls. In the basement laundry room, there’s a notice taped to the wall apologizing to the tenants for the tumult.
“Thank you for your patience and understanding during our recent transition in management,” the sign reads. “We know it hasn’t been the smoothest process, and we genuinely appreciate the grace many of you have shown as we’ve settled in.”
The notice is months old. It was signed by the previous management company, Elev8 Residential, which was replaced by Narrows Property Management in March. in XX month?.
“This is just an example of the current ownership not even coming to their buildings,” Galvon said.
The California landlords, Robert and Candice Hoover, did not respond to a request for comment sent through their management company.
In a statement, Narrows Property Management said it cannot speak to issues that predate its time as management, but that the company responds to maintenance requests in a timely and attentive manner and operates in accordance with state and city law.
“We are actively working through existing and new maintenance issues with tenants and will continue to be an advocate of both tenants and building owners,” the statement said. “We will continue to be responsive and attentive to tenant requests promptly and consistently to provide quality service.”
The company’s statement said the changes in management companies were related to a “variety of reasons, with a strong focus on improving communication and prioritizing service and response to maintenance and other requests from tenants.”
The recent wave of tenant organizing in Tacoma may have been kickstarted by renters’ grievances with the California property owners, but organizers say the movement is about much more than a single landlord. Devin Rydel Kelly, an organizer with the Tacoma tenant unions, said he is in touch with renters at several other buildings who are actively preparing to unionize.
“There’s a whole movement around the country right now, and it’s very exciting and awesome,” Devin said. “I think one of the goals here is to build a powerful body that is militant and democratic and member led.”
What is a tenant union?
The Tacoma tenant unions have spent months trying to get their landlords to come to the table and bargain. But no law requires the landlords to do so.
Traditional labor unions are overseen by a federal agency and have many rules and procedures. Because of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, workers are guaranteed the right to form unions, and employers are obligated to bargain with them.
Tenant unions have no such structure.
“We don’t have any real rules, we have no real processes,” said Tara Raghuveer, the director of the Tenant Union Federation, a coalition of tenant unions across the country. “So we’re making stuff up, and I think that invites a level of deep strategy and creativity,”
Even the phrase “tenant union” can mean a lot of different things. Some, like the ones forming in Tacoma, are composed of neighbors who voted to organize themselves at the property level with the goal of negotiating with their landlord for better leases. Such groups sometimes collect dues from members, but not always. (The tenant unions in Tacoma don’t currently collect dues, but members can vote to change that.) There are also entities like the Tenants Union of Washington State, which, despite the name, is less of a “union” and more of a statewide policy advocacy and tenant resource organization.
Lately there has been lots of talk about what a more formalized system for tenant union recognition could look like, Raghuveer said, possibly even something like a National Labor Relations Board for renters.
Raghuveer has mixed feelings about the idea.
“There’s some amazing potential within that, no doubt. But there’s also a cautionary tale based on what we’ve seen in labor,” Raghuveer said. “Sometimes the more formal, the more bureaucratic, the more demilitarized, the more toothless it can become.”
In 2022, the San Francisco City Council passed a law that formalized tenant union recognition and required landlords to meet with tenant unions and confer in good faith.
In Tacoma, organizers are currently gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative — Safe Homes for All — that would enshrine tenants’ rights to form unions and create similar structures.
If it passes, tenant unions would be officially recognized if they demonstrate support from more than 50% of occupied units in a complex.
Once the union is recognized, landlords would be required to engage in “good faith bargaining” regarding matters of concern. The law would also require landlords to post notice in a common area reminding tenants that they have a right to form a union.
Rent strike
Even if the Tacoma ballot initiative doesn’t pass, the union organizers say they are confident they have the leverage needed to get their landlords to come to the table.
Union membership rate is 73% across all the Hoovers’ occupied buildings in Tacoma, said Everett, the New York apartments resident. According to his math, the unionized tenants now account for about $50,0000 in monthly rent for their California-based landlords — about $600,000 a year.
That figure, which Everett and other organizers cite frequently, carries an implicit threat.
“Although we don’t want to rent strike, we will if they won’t continue to meet us at the bargaining table,” Everett said. “The best thing that they can do to prevent that is to come and negotiate with us.”
A rent strike could hurt renters’ credit scores and even put them at risk of eviction. It is a last resort, Everett said, but something they would consider.
“The money we pay them is our biggest amount of power,” Everett said.
Rent strikes are rare, but not unprecedented. In 2024, residents of two Kansas City apartment buildings went on strike for nearly eight months, withholding several hundred thousand dollars in rent and eventually winning new leases with major concessions from their landlords.
Sean Flynn, the president of the large landlord lobbying group Rental Housing Association of Washington, doesn’t think unions make sense for rental housing.
“Unions make sense in a situation where you have a single employer, for example, like the school district. All the teachers have to work for the school district, so that would make sense,” Flynn said. “But in housing, there’s a myriad of different choices in housing. If you don’t like your housing options, people move, and each tenant gets to negotiate.”
Flynn does not think landlords will want to invest in rental property if they know they will have to deal with tenant unions.
“People don’t provide housing as a charity,” Flynn said. “If we really want to solve the housing crisis, this approach will not get us there. You need more housing units, which means you need more housing providers.”
Flynn argues that Tacoma has unusually strict rental housing laws, which he thinks have already driven out many property investors. He said a direct relationship between landlords and renters is a much more effective approach.
“A good long-term tenant gets a better rate than someone who just moved in.” he said. “That’s the way the market works, because housing providers and their tenants have relationships.”
Know your neighbors
According to Zillow, the average rent in Tacoma has increased by about 70% over the past decade.
Raghuveer, with the Tenant Union Federation, said there has been a huge upsurge in tenant organizing activity over the past few years.
“I think this is the biggest moment for tenant organizing since the 1970s,” Raghuveer said. He attributes much of that to the market. “It’s a total catastrophe, the rent is too damn high.”
Kenny Loth, a resident of the recently-unionized Newcastle Apartments in Tacoma, describes the increase as an “assault on the working class” and an “untenable situation.” He experienced homelessness as a child in Tacoma, and he worries about future generations being priced out into the streets.
Built in the early 1900s, the Newcastle Apartments include three stories and sixteen units. The building has historic charm, but renters say it has its share of issues.
This spring, more than 90% of occupied units voted to form a union. Many of the renters now have signs on their doors that say “Union Occupied.” The addition of restrictive pet clauses in some tenants’ leases was a major breaking point that helped inspire the formation of the union, Loth said. The union’s logo is an illustrated amalgamation of the many cats who live in the building: Pumpkin. Lucifer. Luna. Jack. Meecko. Mamma Kitty.
“We kind of started comparing notes and just realizing that maybe we had a little more power together, and we’re stronger together,” said Maggie Knott, Loth’s next-door neighbor.
Loth and Knott are from different generations. They barely spoke before getting organized but have since grown close.
“We’ve really grown to appreciate each other,” Knott said. “We’re different humans that come from different perspectives, but are really aligned on this.”
The tenants say getting to know the people they live with has been one of the best parts about getting organized.
The Tacoma tenant unions all have regular formal meetings where they talk strategy. But now, there is more informal note-sharing that happens between neighbors, where they talk about thing like transparency around rent.
“I know a lot of northwest folks can be pretty antisocial, but I promise you it's not that scary,” Loth said. “Your neighbors are going through the same stuff as you."
