Ebony Joy recalls the day Quadrel Realty Group, a private-equity-backed landlord, took control of her building at 929-935 Michigan Ave. in Evanston, Illinois. The company replaced tenants’ keys with a keyless entry system called Latch, now known as DOOR, and added a $30 monthly fee. Joy says, “We had to do the Latch,” with no room for negotiation.
Tenants discovered that Quadrel was charging them $30-40 per month for Latch, while the company itself paid only $7 per month. This discrepancy, along with other grievances, led to the formation of the Quadrel Evanston Tenants Union in March 2025. The union aimed to address issues such as rising rents, declining building conditions, and the lack of maintenance.
The City of Evanston played a significant role in the tenants’ fight by funding the Metropolitan Tenants Organization (MTO), a nonprofit that helps tenants organize. MTO’s contract with the city provided a baseline of guaranteed funding and reimbursed additional tenant organizing on an as-needed basis. This support enabled tenants to access an experienced strategist and gain confidence in their fight against the landlord.
Organizing and Pushing for Change
Jonah Karsh, an MTO organizer, met with tenants from the Michigan Avenue building in spring 2025. The tenants were already upset about rent increases and fee hikes, and they sought MTO’s help. Karsh recalls, “They had some really, really talented people with natural organizing abilities.” With MTO’s support, the tenants union was formed, and they began to push for change.
Katie MacDonald, a tenant in the building, joined the union after learning about the issues affecting her neighbors. Lemma Andrew, another tenant, describes the poor building conditions, including chipped paint, popped nails, and pest infestations. She says, “I was immediately on board” with the union.
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Private Equity Landlords Rise
The tenants’ fight was not unique to Evanston. Private equity firms, like Quadrel’s parent company, North Park Ventures, are increasingly investing in real estate, raising rents, and cutting maintenance costs. Madeline Bankson, a housing researcher, notes that private-equity landlords tend to prioritize short-term gains over tenants’ needs. The result is that “tenants are paying more money for… sometimes even worse levels of service than they’re getting from non-private equity landlords.”
In June 2026, after over a year of organizing, the Quadrel Evanston Tenants Union reached an agreement with Quadrel and North Park Ventures. The agreement included a one-time 5-percent rent decrease, the option of a two-year lease, fees reset to actual costs, and refunds for months of overcharges. This win was significant, given the private equity landlord’s initial resistance to the tenants’ demands.
The city’s funding of MTO was essential in the tenants’ success. Karsh says, “There hasn’t, fortunately, been a scenario where I felt there’s any sort of conflict of interest.” The city’s support allowed MTO to document apparent violations of Evanston’s Residential Landlord Tenants Ordinance and push for the city to take action. In October 2025, the city sent Quadrel a 5-page letter detailing multiple alleged municipal code violations and threatening legal action.
City Intervenes with Fines
City Councilmember Shawn Iles notes that the city’s newest regulations for its existing RLTO were put into effect in January 2025 without an enforcement mechanism. Watching negotiations collapse and restart repeatedly, Iles pushed the City Council to add specific per-unit, per-violation fines reaching up to $1,000 a day.
As the tenants union continued to push for change, they faced challenges and setbacks. Quadrel still wasn’t negotiating with the union collectively, and the company’s tactics included stalling and making individual lease offers to tenants. Karsh noticed that every time the union tried to give Quadrel room to follow through on a promise, nothing happened. He began calling out this tactic in meetings so tenants wouldn’t mistake Quadrel’s stalling for progress.
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By spring 2026, progress toward collective negotiations stalled again after Quadrel sent lease-renewal offers to tenants who’d been on a month-to-month status. The offers carried the same rent increases and fee hikes the union had been fighting all along, with response deadlines that, in some cases, had already passed by the time tenants received them. The union answered with institutional and collective pressure at once, with city officials pushing back publicly and tenants sending Quadrel letters detailing every illegal provision in their offers.
Karsh says, “They were just getting flooded” with letters and pressure from the union. MacDonald credits the collective structure with letting her refuse to sign a renewal offer despite immense pressure. Acting alone, she says, “I probably would have felt like, OK, I just need to sign, or I need to move.” The situation forced the city to face a gap in its own rules, and the City Council passed a measure adding specific per-unit, per-violation fines reaching up to $1,000 a day.
Different Outcome in Minneapolis
Quadrel’s behavior in Minneapolis, where the company owns the Brentwood building, was strikingly different. Tenants there have had limited success in organizing and pushing for change, despite the presence of a state law protecting tenants’ right to organize. Emery Brush, a Brentwood tenant, describes retaliation from the landlord, including a switch to appointment-only hours and an eviction attempt. The tenant association’s lawyers have fought at least one eviction attempt, and the landlord still owes the tenants’ association over $100,000, growing by $750 a day.
Brush says, “The court has not shown any method in which they can compel payment.” The lack of city-funded support and institutional backing has made it difficult for Brentwood tenants to sustain their fight. Unlike Evanston, where the city’s funding of MTO provided critical support, Minneapolis tenants have had to rely on their own resources and solidarity to push back against the landlord.
