BOZEMAN, Mont. — Several residents of Bridger Heights, a low-income housing development in Bozeman, say they have lived in unsafe and unsanitary conditions for years and banded together Friday to demand change from their landlord.

Residents were joined by Bozeman Tenants United, as well as Bozeman City Commissioner Emma Bode and Deputy Mayor Joey Morrison, as they officially launched a tenants union.

These residents say they lived with black mold, leaking ceilings and walls, radon exposure, faulty electrical appliances, broken appliances and windows, and that their maintenance requests went unanswered or made subject to reprisals and threats of expulsion.

“We need to be heard and tell the truth about what is happening in our lives at the hands of our landlords,” said Delisa deVargas, a Bridger Heights resident and member of the newly formed tenants union.

But Friday’s event took a turn for the worse as residents marched to the board’s office doors to register their list of demands, which include damages for exposure to unsafe conditions and an end to retaliation and expulsions without cause.

That’s when the property manager, Laura Manners, arrived and said she was calling the police.

When the police arrived on scene, the group had dispersed. Manners declined to comment on the incident.

Tom Daniels, executive vice president of 11 Residential, the company that manages Bridger Heights, said he was not aware of the demands before the event, that there had been no retaliation against residents and that the building was inspected every year. .

“We just received a 91 percent NSPIRE HUD inspection,” Daniels said. “We are proud of Bridger Heights leadership for caring for our residents. »

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s National Standards for Physical Property Inspection evaluates the health and safety of public housing on a 100-point scale. A score of 91 is an A.

But residents shared several photos with NBC Montana, showing black mold inside their units.

“The basement apartments have worse mold than the upstairs apartments, so I guess that makes me one of the lucky ones,” said Ozaa EchoMaker, a Bridger Heights resident and tenant union member. “But that’s not really the case.”

EchoMaker has lived in Bridger Heights for five years. She says the presence of black mold is a health concern for her and her five-year-old daughter, as well as other vulnerable residents.

“Almost a large majority of apartments have children,” EchoMaker said. “Those who don’t have children are disabled or elderly and on a fixed income, and they breathe in black mold spores.”

But Bridger Heights resident Evelyn Littlefield, who has lived on the property for ten years, says the tenants’ union’s views don’t reflect those of many residents.

“Every place has black mold,” Littlefield told NBC Montana. “Do you know what you’re doing? You cut up an onion, put a little bowl here and there around your house, and off you go. It’s cleared up. I do it myself.

Littlefield says she’s grateful to have a place to call home, and rather than help, she fears the tenants’ union’s demands will put that place at risk.

“I need a home, my kids need a home,” Littlefield said. “Why put us all in danger and at risk? »

NBC Montana was able to verify that 29 of the 50 units that make up Bridger Heights have joined the tenants’ union. These tenants say that if they do not receive a response to their requests, they are ready to make the situation worse.

According to Bozeman Tenants United organizers, 11 Capital received $6.7 million in federal funding for the purchase of Bridger Heights and is currently in the process of selling the property at a profit to a new ownership group that will include HRDC and the Good Housing Partnership.

“Some of the most vulnerable people in our community, seniors living on fixed incomes, people with disabilities, single parents who are struggling to make ends meet and who are having to make very difficult decisions about whether they can feed themselves or pay their rent. or to enable themselves to meet their other needs – these are precisely the type of people that companies like 11 Capital and others have decided is precisely the type of item I want in my investment portfolio “Morrison said. “They have specifically decided that the most vulnerable people in our community are the ones they can take advantage of, prey on and extort as much money from them as possible.”

Morrison praised residents for forming a union, calling it one of the most effective and reliable ways to initiate change.

City Commissioner Bode echoed that sentiment and said current and future owners must ensure safe living conditions on the property and if they fail to do so, they must be held accountable.

“Myself and the Deputy Mayor are aware of and monitoring this situation, and we are prepared to collaborate with our colleagues on the commission to act and work within our legal authority as a municipality if conditions in Bridger Heights aren’t getting better,'” Bode says.