"I’m here tonight to be a voice for renters who are afraid to speak up because they fear their landlord will retaliate."
High rents, unsafe apartments, unresponsive out-of-state landlords and questionable spending of security deposits were among a host of concerns raised by tenants at a renters’ forum sponsored by The Connecticut Project Action Fund in Naugatuck on Thursday.
Nearly 200 people turned out for the event, including a bipartisan contingent of state lawmakers and mayors, that helped kick off the organization’s Renter’s Agenda for the new 2027 state legislative session.
The campaign addresses:
“I’m here tonight to be a voice for renters who are afraid to speak up because they fear their landlord will retaliate,” Sharon Cain, a renter from Ansonia, told the crowd.
A former security officer at Yale University, Cain spoke about receiving a notice to move out of her old apartment after raising concerns when her former landlord in Derby wanted to raise the rent from $1,400 to $1,600 a month and hadn’t made needed repairs to the unit for years. The landlord ultimately kept her security deposit and demanded Cain pay additional money for improvements ranging from a new toilet to new flooring.
“I have lived there since 2013. That is not damage. That is normal wear and tear,” Cain said. “Those are things he should have fixed in the first place and then he told us we owed him even more.”
Cain’s granddaughter, who lived in another apartment in the same building, also lost her security deposit and received a bill for nearly $8,000 in repairs after she had to move out. Cain noted there was no working heat in the apartment for three years, and her granddaughter had to use space heaters to stay warm.
Other attendees on Thursday told similar stories. Glenda Negron of New Britain brought a copy of a letter her 66-year-old mother Lillian Cruz had received from her landlord demanding $1,693 in addition to her $1,537 security deposit, including interest, after she moved out. Cruz had lived in the apartment for 20 years.
The landlord’s list of repairs ranges from a $100 charge to fix a previous clogged toilet to $1,280 for “pest fumigation” services, even though Negron said there was a known problem of roaches and mice that hadn’t been addressed by the landlord.
Other tenants told stories about having their apartment buildings sold multiple times, often to out-of-state landlords from as far away as North Carolina. With each sale, some tenants said their rent has increased even though much-needed repairs weren’t made.
Some spoke of being evicted once a new owner took over the property.
“Something is wrong with this system,” said Donna, a tenant from Middletown who didn’t want her last name used. She described being thrown out of her apartment in the middle of December after asking to stay a little longer until her new apartment was ready.
“In the middle of winter, right after the holiday, he threw us out with nothing,” she said. State Rep. Joseph Polletta, a Republican whose district includes Watertown and a portion of Waterbury, said he’s heard numerous complaints about out-of-state landlords and would support legislation proposed last year that would create a new landlord registry in Connecticut.
“I do think there’s a way we can hold these folks accountable where, if they’re just buying up a property and then they’re absent and they’re not showing up, there should at least be someone that’s quote-unquote responsible for that parcel," he said.
During the forum, renters had an opportunity to meet with their respective state legislators and tell their personal housing stories. State and local elected officials from Naugatuck, Ansonia, East Hartford, Manchester, Meriden, Middletown, New Britain, and Waterbury were on hand for the event. Other state officials also attended, including the director of government affairs and communications for the state Department of Housing and a legislative aide representing Bridgeport.
New Haven Sen. Gary Winfield, a Democrat who introduced a housing bill in 2023 that didn’t gain any traction that year, said he was encouraged by the large turnout at Thursday’s event and believes momentum is now growing for change.
“When I walked into this room and saw all these people, I said, ‘Oh, we are in a different space,” Winfield said.