Tenants Who Fought Minneapolis Landlord for Years Get a Windfall

"Vanessa Del Campo was overwhelmed by the ongoing battle against cockroach and mice infestations, appliances that didn’t operate and myriad other problems until she joined a tenants’ rights group that took on her landlord, Stephen Frenz.

Last week she opened her mailbox at her apartment building on the 3100 block of 22nd Ave. S. in Minneapolis and found one of the fruits of that fight, a check addressed to her for $4,000, part of a class-action settlement.

“We didn’t expect to see that much money,” Del Campo, 42, said through an interpreter. She still lives in the apartment with her husband and daughter, who is nearly 2 years old. “We were almost in shock,” she said.

A total of 4,361 tenants and former tenants, many of them low income, began receiving checks last week, totaling more than $12 million. About 1,000 tenants could not be located..."

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