Many tenants got angry after the real estate investment company, Vision Beyond LLC, collapsed amid fraud allegations in 2024.Leslie Carter got organized.Its been dope, being with the tenants union, Carter said. I love my apartm ent. I love what I made.Carter is one of a dozen renters who joined the Cincinnati Tenants Union to negotiate a new lease with the court-approved buyer of a Vision Beyond building at 2058 Auburn Avenue.The 25-page document provides a 12-month rent freeze for existing tenants. It prohibits pet fees and security deposits. And it adopts just-cause eviction standards that are common in other cities but have yet to be introduced in Cincinnati, according to Brad Hirn, a volunteer organizer for the fast-growing union.This is essential for improving the housing stock in Cincinnati, said Hirn, who helped the five-year-old union recruit 350 new members since November 2024. I think we have the potential to be in the thousands of members, to have contracts in dozens of buildings that start to become a model contract for the city.The WCPO 9 I-Team has been exploring the rise of Cincinnatis tenant movement because of recurring reports about substandard housing, including properties abandoned by Vision Beyond and mold infestations at properties owned by the national nonprofit, Preservation of Affordable Housing.We wanted to know what impact a tenant union could have on Cincinnati, where rents spiked in recent years but median asking rents remain well below national averages, according to Redfin.WATCH: How the union is looking to improve housing in Cincinnati Inside the growth of Cincinnati's tenant union aiming to reshape housingTenant unions are on the rise in the U.S. because of rent hikes and soaring eviction rates in the years following the COVID pandemic, according to Greg Baltz, an assistant law professor at Rutgers University who published research on the topic in 2024.The cities with the largest tenant unions are the cities that also have the strongest renters protections, Baltz said. So, New York City and Los Angeles have two of the biggest tenant movements in the country. But especially in the last 10 years, weve seen this resurgence of the tenant movement in cities and states ranging from Connecticut and San Francisco to Louisville, Kentucky, and Bozeman, Montana.Kansas City has one of the nations most effective tenant unions, Baltz said. It has more than 10,000 members, whove emerged as a political force that got city council members elected and used rent strikes to force landlords into concessions.Whether Cincinnatis union can achieve that kind of clout will depend on the results it delivers for tenants.Every single tenant union starts in one building, Baltz said. Growth is really dependent on whether or not members see real concrete changes in their lives, whether thats their rents going up more slowly, being protected from evictions or repairs being made. Union growth driven by VBThe Cincinnati Tenants Union checks all those boxes for Carter.He works at Christ Hospital and was happy to find a one-bedroom apartment across the street for $850 a month.But that was 15 months ago. The luster quickly faded when Carter called Vision Beyonds management office about electrical problems in his unit.They were in the middle of fixing my light fixtures, Carter said. He was telling me a little bit about the place. And right in the middle, he just picked up the phone and said, Vision Beyond is going bankrupt. I have to leave.It wasnt bankruptcy just a massive foreclosure case triggered by one of the most complicated fraud schemes in Hamilton Countys history. Vision Beyonds owners, two former Israeli soldiers, were accused of double-booking loans and shifting assets away from investors.Dozens of properties were assigned to court-appointed receivers, who usually manage foreclosed properties with money from lenders who expect to be reimbursed when properties are sold.But in this case, lenders and investors are fighting over sale proceeds. No one was willing to pay for building operations while liabilities were sorted.At 2058 Auburn, Carter struggled to find help with security problems, a broken-down laundry room and roof leaks that left mold stains on the ceiling outside his third-floor unit.The lights are constantly flickering in the hallway, Carter said. Im on the top floor, so we get all the leaks. When it rains really bad, theres three, four puddles in the hallway, everybody has to go around. Foreclosure sales and lease talksMore than 80 buildings were caught in the Vision Beyond collapse, presenting a big opportunity for the Cincinnati Tenants Union.About half of its members live in former Vision Beyond properties. Theyre now working with union organizers to pursue new lease arrangements as the buildings are sold in foreclosure.At the Kirby Apartments in Mt. Airy, for example, tenants individually negotiated one-year moratoriums on rent increases. But theyve yet to sign a new lease as a group.At 2058 Auburn, the dynamic was different. By the time real estate investor Jacob Shoushan won a court order to purchase the property in December, Carter and other tenants had already held several negotiating sessions with their future landlord.We went in depth about the lease, Carter said. We talked about each point, and we signed off on it. Normally, you get a lease and you sign it. Its never a back-and-forth, but this time it was totally different.In the end, they produced a contract full of tenant-friendly clauses, including one that says the landlord must wait six days to contact a tenant about late rent and 12 days to send a 3-day notice demanding payment.Another clause requires no security deposit and adds: Landlord shall not charge Tenant for any losses, damages, and/or expenses due to unreasonable wear and tear.Shoushan declined to comment for this story because hes yet to finalize the propertys purchase. But Hirn said he expects the lease to be signed after the sale and praised Shoushan for being willing to negotiate directly with tenants."The landlord saw very clearly, face to face, who was living in the building he was going to be acquiring, Hirn said. And when youre faced with that as a landlord, it becomes a lot harder to just deny someone the basic respect of negotiating towards an agreement.Hirn is a Cincinnati native who worked as a union organizer in Chicago and tenant organizer in San Francisco before moving back to town in 2024.Those specialized skills were a game-changer for the Cincinnati Tenants Union, which was established during the pandemic but failed to attract members, said Kevin Hengehold, a volunteer since 2023.The need for this organization has been around for a long time, Hengehold said. This can grow in a big way.Hirn is working to develop training programs for new volunteers and residents, using a $50,000 grant from HouseUS, a pooled philanthropic fund announced in 2021 by the Ford Foundation.It really is intensive work and its serious work, Hirn said. We hope that can make this sustainable in the long term.In the meantime, hell keep sharing that lease with tenants and building owners, in hopes of establishing a new industry standard.Its as enforceable as the tenants are organized, Hirn said. If your union is strong in your building and you continue to show management that you are serious about winning fair housing conditions, then that is the strength of your contract. ...read more read less