It doesn't matter how often or how extensively Diasha White cleans her two-bedroom apartment at Independence Towers in eastern Jackson County. The cockroaches always reappear.

"It actually pisses me off," White said. "After I clean it, what's the first thing I see? Roaches crawling."

White stores her mops and brooms upright, so the bugs don't get caught in the bristles. She and her daughter sleep with the lights on, so the roaches don't follow them to bed.

"The heat, the water constantly go out," White said. "Air conditioner -- constantly."

The conditions pushed White to join dozens of other tenants who went on rent strike in October. The same month, residents at Quality Hill Towers in downtown Kansas City made the same strategic decision to withhold rent in response to years of worsening problems like pests, mold and faulty appliances.

Independence Towers residents are continuing their rent strike into December. KC Tenants, the citywide tenant organization that supported the formation of both unions, say they are the longest recorded rent strikes in Kansas City.

Unlike a workplace strike, a rent strike comes with far fewer protections for tenants, opening them up to evictions or other forms of retaliation from the landlord. Striking tenants at Quality Hill have since been hit with eviction filings and lease nonrenewal notices that push people out of their homes.

But White said it's worth the risk.

"Y'all been getting our money," she said. "Maybe if we stop the money flowing, you'll slow down and turn around and listen to us."

The tenant unions are not only targeting the landlord. Because both apartment complexes are financed by the government sponsored mortgage lender Fannie Mae, which is overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, tenants are going after the government agencies, too. The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not respond to KCUR's request for comment.

"Those businesses are taking public money," said Gina Chiala, executive director of the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom nonprofit. "They're taking taxpayer money, (and) they're pocketing it instead of maintaining the properties. And it's important for federal regulators to do something about it."

Chiala has represented many tenants living in substandard housing, and said rent strikes and class action lawsuits are ways tenants can draw attention to neglectful landlords.

In Kansas City and Independence, they are demanding landlords address long-ignored maintenance problems and improve living conditions for residents. The unions also want new ownership of their buildings, collectively-bargained leases and national caps on rent as part of the strike.

"This is an epidemic. It's so many properties like this in America, (and in) Kansas City," White said. "Something needs to be done about this."

When Chris Carlton moved into his apartment at Independence Towers last November, his stove didn't work, his toilet was faulty, and his tub took nearly a day to empty after a shower.

"This was my first time being a tenant and I already had pretty low expectations because of how much the rent was, which is only like $850 a month," Carlton said. "I kind of took it for granted that that was just what I was going to have to deal with."

It wasn't until Carlton joined the Independence Towers tenant union earlier this year that he realized many others in the building live with similar problems, and they don't have to accept those conditions.

The tenant union formed in March. Around that time, residents lost hot water for two weeks.

Independence Towers was owned at the time by FTW Investments, but the company was embroiled in a lawsuit with Fannie Mae for failing to pay back its loan and maintain the building. Following pressure from the tenant union, the company settled out of court, and the building came under a court-appointed receivership in May.

Independence Towers is currently overseen by TriGild Inc., a national property management company. TriGild Inc. did not respond to KCUR's request for comment, and union members said poor living conditions have continued.

In June, a fire caused first- and second-floor residents to relocate, and the building lost air conditioning for most of the summer. In July, a 3-year-old child died after falling from an open window. The child's parents have been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a first-degree offense, but the parents and other residents had previously reported a problem with the windows to the landlord, according to KC Tenants.

Members of the union met with a TriGild representative in June and laid out their demands, which included providing air conditioning, addressing maintenance requests and promising to not retaliate against union members. KC Tenants said the representative agreed to their demands, but Carlton said conditions didn't meaningfully improve.

"It was pretty obvious by that point that the only way we were going to get their attention, to get them to listen to us, was to escalate to do a rent strike," he said.

At Independence Towers, 33 residents are still on strike this month.

Now, tenants want a say in shaping the inevitable: When the building gets a new owner, they want the ability to collectively-bargain their lease agreements.

"That would allow us to continue organizing, that would prevent retaliation through evictions or lease nonrenewals, and would help put a cap on the rent increase hike so that we don't get priced out of our own homes," Carlton said.

In October, Fannie Mae issued a $1.35 million payout to fund long-neglected repairs throughout the building. Carlton has started to see some improvements, though he said they ultimately fall short of satisfying the union's demands.

"My toilet no longer leaks," Carlton said. "My bathroom drains properly, my bathtub drains properly."

In Dirk Anderson's Quality Hill studio apartment, the water dripping from the bathtub is constant and loud enough that it can be heard throughout the unit. It has created a ring of black mold near the bottom of the tub.

"This is all day, all night," Anderson said. "Water, just running."

There's also mold by the windows, and rust grows under his sink, which is filled nearly to the brim with brown water.

Anderson moved into the KC Highline building in February 2021. The apartment is part of Quality Hill Towers, on Jefferson Street in downtown Kansas City.

The tenant union here formed in September. Later that month, 64 members voted to go on rent strike.

"Why would I continue to pay you?" Anderson said. "And I can't even take a shower. I can't even have my walls fixed. I can't have this mold taken out of my windows."

Tenants say their landlord, Sentinel Real Estate Corporation, has not met with them since the strike began, and has hit striking tenants with late fees and lease nonrenewal notices. Sentinel did not respond to KCUR's request for comment but, this week, the company filed 16 evictions against tenants who were on strike, according to KC Tenants.

Anderson received a nonrenewal notice in November, and sees it as retaliation for participating in the rent strike. He doesn't know what he'll do if Sentinel follows through.

"I'm just kind of between a rock and a hard place," he said. "It's like, I'm paying to live in the slums. And I just can't understand that."

Sentinel has made some improvements since the rent strikes started. A new boiler and water heater were installed, elevators were cleaned, longstanding maintenance requests are being addressed and some evictions were dismissed. Residents even received $200 gift cards from Sentinel.

So the tenant union voted to pause their rent strike this month and pay December's rent.

"We're trying to show you that, 'Hey, we want to pay you, but we just want our issues fixed,'" Anderson said.

In exchange, the union is demanding that Sentinel rescind the lease nonrenewals it already issued, waive late fees, freeze rent for tenants through January 2026, hire another maintenance professional, install a new security system and complete outstanding maintenance requests.

As the end of the month draws near, the tenant unions in Quality Hill and Independence Towers will soon have to decide their course of action in the new year.

"If we can pull our minds and pull our power together, maybe we can make a difference," Independence Towers resident Daisha White said. "Not just in Missouri or Kansas City or Independence, but across the country when it comes to housing -- everybody's got to have a home."