Potholes riddled the private road leading into the Avon Place and Avon Woods apartment complexes in the town of Avon.
Pink circles of spray paint, done by a disgruntled resident, delineate the largest of the potholes.
Fed up with the general lack of maintenance, Avon Place residents recently established the town’s first tenants union.
The health and safety concerns are numerous and varied, including the many potholes, mold in apartments, a ceiling that crashed down into a tenant’s bathtub, and a community pool closed by the local health department for the last three years.
Amy Arlin, vice president of the Avon Place Tenants Union, said the neglect is inexcusable.
“This is not just a lack of maintenance, this is neglect, and we have all tried to get things changed ourselves, and nothing has worked,” Arlin said. “We are coming together as a union so that we can make change happen.”
Arlin said she paid $3,000 to have the struts on her vehicle replaced due to damage caused by potholes at the complex.
The water in the pool at Avon Place matches the color of the vibrant green grass surrounding it.
“We have a pool, which is part of our rent. People moved here because of the pool,” Arlin said. “It's been closed by the Health Department for three years in a row.”
Empire Realty, the New York based landlord which owns several apartment buildings across Connecticut including Avon Place, purchased the property in September 2022, Arlin said.
Empire Realty, spearheaded by Ahron Rudich, did not respond to Connecticut Public’s request for comment, and the telephone number listed on the company website is no longer in service.
Avon Place has 180 units, about 40% of which are vacant, according to Connecticut Tenants Union Vice President Luke Melonakos-Harrison.
The high vacancy rate is due in part to several small fires causing apartment damage. The damage, not repaired by Empire Realty, left the apartments unable to be rented.
“We have dozens and dozens of units that could be adequate housing for the many people in our state who need it, but because of Empire Realty’s extreme negligence, they are just sitting there not being used,” Melonakos-Harrison said.
The town of Avon placed a $400,000 lien against Avon Place resulting from a fire at the complex.
The town became responsible for rehoming residents after the landlord failed to repair the apartments following a fire, according to Dan Polhamus, who chairs the Town Council.
“The reality is, here in Avon, we've never faced this level of egregious mismanagement,” Polhamus said. “We have relatively few rental options, even fewer affordable rental options, and in hindsight, we've been lucky to have proactive, responsible and caring landlords.”
Avon Place Tenants Union members traveled to Brooklyn, New York, Monday to deliver a letter to Empire Realty’s headquarters asking for their demands to be met.
While the company, Empire Realty, is fiscally sound, the subsection of the organization, the Limited Liability Company (LLC) that technically owns Avon Place, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.
Empire Realty has a history of negligence in Avon, according to Polhamus.
In 2023, Avon also intervened after tenants complained of inconsistent hot water, Polhamus said. Rudich is also more than $1 million behind on taxes, Polhamus said.
“This is a massive debt to Avon and a massive debt to the residents of Avon Place that need to be restored,” Polhamus said. “These lines are not something that should be a regular practice. This is a total last resort.”
