The Fair Rent Commission (FRC) has turned down both tenants unions that had been vying to represent a 312-unit, low-income apartment complex in Quinnipiac Meadows after finding that neither has yet secured the support of a majority of the property’s renters. FRC Executive Director Wildaliz Ber múdez provided the Independent with reports documenting those Sunset Ridge tenants-union-petition rejections on Friday afternoon. The reports, dated Thursday, represent the culmination of nearly four months of investigatory work by the city agency. Click here, here, and here to read all three of the FRC’s Sunset Ridge reports. According to a city law first passed in 2022 and amended in 2024, tenants unions looking for official recognition from City Hall must be created by a majority of lease-holding renters at a complex that has at least five units of housing. The city has officially recognized eight such tenants unions at complexes across New Haven — thereby allowing those unions to participate in Fair Rent Commission investigations and hearings. The two competing Sunset Ridge unions, meanwhile, both failed to secure enough valid signatures to qualify for city recognition. One union — led by a resident named Sebastian Gomez — initially submitted a membership list of 202 names. The FRC found that only two of those named renters had submitted all required information to qualify for membership in a city-recognized union. The other union — led by residents named Tawana Galberth and Cynthia Vega-Vieyra, and backed by a statewide group called the Connecticut Tenants Union (CTTU) — initially submitted a membership list of 168 names. The FRC was able to verify a total of 98 of those union’s constituents. The upshot of all of this: The FRC found that neither union submitted legible names and lease information from the majority of households at Sunset Ridge, and so neither union was granted formal status. Even without city recognition, however, unions can still push for a collective bargaining process and coordinate calls for maintenance improvements. In an email comment sent to the Independent on Friday, Bermúdez said the investigation into Sunset Ridge’s competing unions has pushed the commission to tighten its union-verification process. “In the past, the FRC had no reason to question the integrity of tenant union applications,” Bermúdez said. “Moving forward, the FRC will require the tenant union president and/or tenant union representative(s) to affirm to the FRC that the application is valid, and that all signatories have willingly and knowingly signed the registration form.” The lease start date section was left blank for several entries on both membership lists, an omission that disqualified many names. Moving forward, Bermúdez said the FRC will scrutinize that section as closely as the others. At Sunset Ridge, the conflict over the city’s union-recognition process has raged for more than three months. According to the FRC’s reports, the tenants union represented by Gomez was certified by the city on Oct. 30, 2025, the same day Gomez submitted a membership list of 202 names. Two weeks later, a tenant entered the property manager’s office and saw her name on Gomez’s union’s roster. She reached out to the FRC to request an investigation. “This is the first time in New Haven’s FRC history, that an investigation was requested by a tenant whose name appeared on a tenants’ union list, where the tenant called into question their name being provided as a tenant union member,” reads one of the FRC reports obtained by the Independent on Friday. “This initial investigation request and the unique circumstances in which there have been two submissions to the FRC by proposed tenants’ unions, led the FRC staff to review and investigate the submittal of both proposed unions.” On Nov. 24, the FRC began calling names on Gomez’s list. According to the report, the agency successfully contacted 55 people, 11 of whom “clearly denied being part of this tenants’ union.” In January, the FRC mailed letters requesting verification to 196 names on the list. The report indicates that 170 letters were returned to sender. The agency received 41 responses to their letters, though 12 respondents were not listed on the original roster. Of the remaining 29 responses, the report indicates that one person denied signing Gomez’s list, and eight others did not want to join the union. The rest of the respondents confirmed their membership, but they failed to provide the start dates of their leases, disqualifying them by FRC rules. “That means that, of the 202 [] names received, only two (2) tenants provided the FRC with all required fields. Therefore, there are only two (2) tenants who qualify as [] members” of Gomez’s union, the report concludes. Gomez did not respond to requests for comment by the publication time of this article. The other tenants union — the one represented by Galberth and Vega-Vieyra and backed by CTTU — is currently suing Sunset Ridge’s landlord, the New York-based Capital Realty Group, for alleged retaliatory tactics against renters and organizers looking to form a union. They also claim that Gomez’s union is affiliated with management. One of the FRC reports states that Galberth and Vega-Vieyra submitted a membership list on Nov. 14, the same day that a tenant requested an investigation into Gomez’s union. The list from Galberth and Vega-Vieyra contained 168 names, including two duplicates. Through the month of December, the FRC successfully contacted 67 people on the union’s membership list. According to the report, 15 people said they had only signed to support the union, not to join. Eight people requested that their names be removed, and one person, who is deaf, denied ever signing the list. Luke Melonakos, the vice president of CTTU, offered two theories to explain the discrepancies. “We never expected the FRC to call anyone in this way, because that’s never happened before,” Melonakos told the Independent. “People might have been confused about why they were being called by the city about it.” His other theory is about fear of retaliation from the landlord. “I have had a number of people tell me personally, ‘I support what you’re doing, but I can’t get personally involved, because I’m afraid of what will happen if I do.'” Melonakos also quibbled with the distinction between “joining” and “supporting” the union. In January, the report indicates that FRC began mailing letters to request verification from all 168 names on the list; 68 letters were returned as undeliverable. The FRC received 25 responses to their letters, including one person who was not listed on the original roster. All respondents confirmed their membership in the union. Even so, the union fell short of recognition, as many entries were disqualified for being illegible or omitting a lease start date. “The FRC is missing an additional 62 tenant union members with full requirements to meet the threshold for recognition,” reads the report. While the commission declined to certify the union, the letter invites the group to submit a supplemental membership list. On Friday, Melonakos told the Independent that the union is still deciding how to proceed. “I do think that everyone is coming away from this whole process and feeling tired,” he said. “It’s unfortunate. I’m not necessarily blaming the FRC. I’m blaming Capital Realty, and their efforts to union bust in this way by creating a management propped-up union.” The post Competing Tenants Unions Come Up Short appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less