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Cecilia Castillo scrolls through pictures of cockroaches in her apartment, including one of the insect sticky tape she’s used to catch them.
In the six years she’s lived at 257 North Redwood Road, she’s taken care of most issues on her own, she said, and property management doesn’t care.
Castillo learned in May the rent she would pay to a subsidiary of the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City was going up $280.
She showed copies of leases from last year and this year after she and other tenants delivered a letter of demands to the housing authority’s offices Friday afternoon. Her rent increased from $1,100 a month to $1,380.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) At left, Cecilia Castillo talks with Brandi Tillman, director of property management at the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, about a letter to impose a sudden rent increase for her apartment on June 30, 2023.
Others already have seen or expected to see increases in their rent, but the housing authority says they received notice of an incorrect increase.
Britnee Dabb, one of the housing authority’s deputy directors, said both the property on Redwood Road and another on 800 West are market-rate sites with the option to use a housing choice voucher. They do not fall under the rules limiting how much of a tenant’s income can go to rent.
The amounts listed in the letters tenants received were for new move-ins, not current residents, Dabb wrote in an email. The correct increase current tenants face is 10%, or about $100, she said.
“We apologize for the confusion and error made on our part,” Dabb said.
But a 10% increase would still put Castillo’s rent at $1,210 — nearly $200 more than the standard rent for each type of unit the tenants demand in the letter delivered Friday. They ask for standard rent of $913 for two-bedroom apartments and $1,020 for three-bedroom apartments.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Erma Tafoya, holding her daughter Sofia, joined fellow tenants on June 30, 2023 at the Housing Assistance Management Enterprise (HAME) to protest a letter informing them of a sudden increase in rent for their apartments.
Tenants at the property on Redwood and a housing authority property at 330 N. 800 West have organized as Vecinos Unidos, Spanish for “Neighbors United.”
In the letter, they ask the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City to set standard rent amounts of $913 for a two-bedroom apartment and $1,020 for a three-bedroom apartment.
They also ask for an end to rent increases and a meeting with Daniel Nackerman, the agency’s executive director, to negotiate rent amounts.
Tenants had several other complaints, such as the cockroaches and concerns about buildings being unsafe.
Sara Price, who’s lived at 330 North 800 West since December 2014, said the apartments there have been poorly maintained just about the entire time she’s lived there.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sara Price, center, and fellow tenants at the Housing Assistance Management Enterprise (HAME), a subsidiary of the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, deliver a letter protesting a sudden rent increase on their apartments on June 30, 2023.
She pays a little more than $900 for a two-bedroom apartment that she shares with her 11-year-old son. She renewed her lease at that rate in December.
Price emailed the property manager as others were getting notice about rent increases that she could start paying $1,380 to $1,480 a month or more at her next renewal.
“I’m not going to be able to afford what they’re asking,” Price said. “Even if it were something I could afford, it’s not worth it.”
The letter lists mold, rotted carpets, dysfunctional appliances, detached gutters and other unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Castillo also talked to Brandi Tillman, a director of property management and one of two employees who came outside the housing authority’s offices to speak with tenants, about the insufficient ramp installed for her son.
Her five-year-old son is in a wheelchair, and the housing authority approved her request to build a ramp. The complex installed two movable, metal ramps that covered steps up to her apartment, but not from the sidewalk to the road.
Tillman told Castillo and other residents she would work to resolve their problems and said she came out because the housing authority cares.
Housing authority employees will hand-deliver updated letters on Monday, Dabb said.
Correction, July 3, 10:15 a.m. • An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the amount Castillo’s rent increased. It went up $280 a month. (edited)
