East Austin Apartment Tenants Protest Forced Move-Out By New Property Owner

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- More than 40 tenants of Tarrytown Townhomes gathered Thursday evening outside their East Austin apartment complex from which they're being evicted following the property's purchase by a developer intent on rebuilding for a higher-income demographic.

It's the latest skirmish in the gentrification wars of East Austin, which has emerged as ground zero of powerful market forces sweeping across the landscape. Tenants of the 58-unit property at 5020 Manor Rd. were given 30 days to move out on Sept. 1, just after the start of a new school year.

They're asking for more time. It's difficult to find a new place with such short notice, not to mention something in the price range of the affected low-income tenants, officials of a nonprofit group raising awareness to their plight told Patch on Wednesday.

Tenants gathered en masse to call attention to their dilemma, many accompanied by their children. They bore signs and chanted their pleas to whoever might listen. The previous owner, Thrive F.P., didn't listen to them before, tenants said. But maybe the new owner, Tarrytown Towhomes L.P. might take their issues to heart, some tenants said.

“Since Thrive took over last year, all of our repair requests have been ignored,” said Leandra Yanez, who has lived in the building with her three daughters for six years. “My apartment had a leak that was causing mold and I had to fix it myself. My refrigerator still isn’t working. And they just kept taking my rent.”

Shoshana Krieger, project director of Building and Strengthening Tenant Action (BASTA), noted the tenants were joined in their protest by neighborhood friends.

"They were supported by parents and children of their neighborhood school, Blanton Elementary School, who are concerned that their friends and neighbors will no longer be in Blanton classrooms," Krieger told Patch.

But so far, that owner has largely turned a deaf ear to their plight.

"An owner representative indicated at a meeting with tenants on Wednesday that he would not give tenants more than three days in additional time," Krieger said. "Tenants hope that the protest will draw attention to their situation and that the owner will give them more time to find new homes so that in ten days time they do not face having to choose between homelessness and an eviction record."

But Krieger concedes the real possibility tenants may have to take legal action if the owner doesn't reconsider providing them with more time to move: "If more time is not provided, tenants will continue their fight in the courts," she said.

So they gathered on Thursday evening to raise awareness to their plight and, by extension, the plight of a city increasingly unable to retain a more diverse populace -- ethnically, racially, socio-economically -- as the wave of gentrification continues to displace a largely minority segment.

Tenants hope to hear back to see if they'll at least be granted more time to move and, for some, more time to enroll their children in new schools.

And so, they gathered on Thursday. And now, they wait for answers.

>>> Photos by Shoshana Krieger, used with permission