At Cider Mill, a large apartment complex in Gaithersburg, the diverse community of residents have faced problems with safety and living conditions for years. But since 2014, AIM has helped tenant leaders from Cider Mill build their collective power and demand better treatment from their building owners as well as the Montgomery County Council. With their organized power and persistent action, backed by AIM’s congregations, they’ve gained recognition and many of the material changes they’ve asked for, from security cameras to a new school building.

In 2014, AIM began meeting with parents at South Lake Elementary School, where many children from Cider Mill attend, to organize for the creation of the Excel Beyond the Bell afterschool program. Led by Carmen, a teacher at South Lake, and AIM organizers, the parents started knocking on doors in Cider Mill to talk with families about the afterschool program. In the process, they also asked about other concerns the families had, and they heard the same issues over and over: the rents were too high, there were safety problems, it was dark at night, and there were maintenance issues like mold and rodents.

Members of the Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative (GBCI), an AIM member organization of residents at Asbury United Methodist Village, were mentoring students at South Lake Elementary. Many of the GBCI leaders joined in the door-knocking at Cider Mill.

In 2018, Cider Mill residents were under threat of being displaced when a private developer sought to purchase Cider Mill. But AIM successfully advocated for the Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC), a state-authorized agency, to purchase Cider Mill with the help of $15 million from the County. This protected hundreds of families from losing their homes.

However, the residents quickly realized that the property owners and managers were not treating them with respect or properly maintaining the complex. Their requests for maintenance and safety improvements kept going unanswered.

AIM organizer Tanushree Dutta Isaacman encouraged Cider Mill’s leaders to form an official resident association. Tenant leaders officially formed the association in 2020, with legal help from GBCI. They called themselves Safe Places to emphasize their vision of Cider Mill as a safe home for everyone. The tenants began meeting monthly with the building management and HOC to raise their concerns.

The Safe Places tenant association leaders, along with AIM, decided to escalate their concerns about safety to the County Council. The residents invited HOC members, the Chief of Police, and County Councilmembers to walk with them at night to see how dark it was, explaining that kids couldn’t walk back from school in the winter because it was dark at 5 pm. 

In the spring of 2020, AIM hosted a 450-person action with County Councilmembers. They invited the HOC Director, and tenants of Cider Mill spoke about their maintenance and security problems. They gained commitments from HOC to install lighting, replace the laundry machines, and create a transparent process for addressing maintenance requests. While it took persistent follow-up action, HOC finally replaced all the broken washers and dryers, installed key fobs so only residents could access the laundry rooms, and installed security cameras and lighting across the campus. They replaced many of the roofs, which kept the apartments cleaner with fewer pests.

More recently, Safe Places with the support of AIM and GBCI successfully fought to have a crossing guard and crosswalks installed to protect children crossing the street on their way from Cider Mill to school.

Now, while more progress still remains to be made, the Safe Places residents’ association at Cider Mill have established their authority in the community and have won significant safety improvements. With the experience they’ve gained, Safe Places tenant leaders have helped coach tenants at Westchester West, the Enclave, and Northwest Park Apartments to help them build their tenants’ associations. The team also supports their community through food distribution, indoor air quality testing, youth soccer programs, and early childhood education through partnerships with other organizations.

Today after 10 years of organizing, Cider Mill stands as a living example of AIM’s power to organize communities for lasting change.