The Oregonian | By Elliot Njus | June 25, 2019
A tenant union organizer has sued the managers of a Northwest Portland low-income apartment building, saying they’re threatening him with eviction over his union activities.
Brian Jackson says in the lawsuit that Portland-based Income Property Management owes him $1,672, or two months’ rent, in damages under Oregon statutes dealing with retaliatory eviction.
The management firm operates the Yards at Union Station building, 945 N.W. Naito Parkway, for the county’s housing authority, Home Forward. Jackson said he said has about 30 residents of the 158-unit building as members of the union. (The building is the smaller first phase of the larger Yards at Union Station development).
Income Property Management gave Jackson a notice this month, saying he had violated his lease by telling firefighters he was an employee of the company after a small blaze broke out at the building. The company said he would be evicted if, within the next six months, he again “interferes with the management of the premises.”
Jackson denies he identified himself as anything other than a leader of the tenant union. Instead, he said the property managers are trying to prevent him from “interfering” through tenant union activities.
“They could just decide that if I do something with the union and it brushes their hair the wrong way, that I’m interfering,” he said in an interview. “If I look at them crooked, they could determine that’s hindering their ability to manage.”
Income Property Management didn’t return a phone message Monday, but Home Forward said the notice had nothing to do with Jackson’s organizing.
“The notice that this specific resident received is solely related to them representing themselves as management of the building to emergency first responders,” the agency said in a statement. “That kind of behavior can seriously impact the safety of our residents, the building, our community’s first responders and the property’s neighbors.
“The notice, or any component of their lease agreement, does not prevent or limit this or any residents’ ability to organize with their neighbors to advocate for their rights as renters.”
Jackson formed the tenant union more than a year ago in response to what he said were deplorable conditions in the building. At the time, he said, the building had major maintenance issues, including pest infestations and mold in units. And non-residents were frequently around, in some cases threatening residents and urinating in elevators, he said.
Home Forward pointed to clean inspections from state and city housing inspectors, though in-house inspections found isolated mold and bedbugs within units.
“Any private-market building, any hotel, any kind of multi-dwelling building, you’re going to have episodic issues,” said Tim Collier, a spokesman for the agency. “It doesn’t match up with accusations that there’s systemic issues that aren’t being addressed.”
Collier said Home Forward is trying to address the security issues. It’s added windows to the trash rooms to make them less isolated and installed cameras in the building.
“We understand the security of the building is a really important thing,” he said.
Jackson said the mold problems and some of the other issues have abated, but that the pest control efforts have had little follow-through, resulting in a resurgence of rats.
Security problems also persist, he said, and people have left trash and other material — including hypodermic needles — behind in the building. Jackson said he’s personally been threatened by a man with a gun outside the building.
The eviction notice won’t keep him from working for the tenant union, he said.
