OPINION|
Jenny Lind Hall, 711 S. Jefferson, has six stories and zero working elevators. We're into Week No. 6 of this, and the weather and the tempers keeps getting hotter.
In fact, Springfield City Councilmember Brandon Jenson says, some of the long term residents cannot recall a time when one of the two elevators ever worked. The second elevator has worked sporadically in recent years.
Jenson represents Zone 3, which includes Jenny Lind Hall, 711 S. Jefferson Ave. He spoke about the elevator problems and other concerns at Jenny Lind during Monday night's council meeting, June 24, and then spoke with me the following morning.
Millennia Housing Management in Cleveland bought Jenny Lind in 2016.
“I expressed last night that I have quite a bit of concern,” Jenson tells me. “I've expressed that to the city manager via email, as well. They don't appear to be a company that does what they say they will.”
Jenson and Councilmember Heather Hardinger in March met with Millennia regional management staff and visited several Jenny Lind apartments, at the invitation of residents.
“I believe that (Millennia) are no longer responsive to any of our outreach,” Jenson says.
Some residents felt trapped on upper floors
Jenny Lind offers low-income housing for seniors and persons with disabilities. It's called Section 8 housing, which is federally subsidized.
I would imagine that part of the deal is that if you live there, you actually should be able to go out and buy groceries, attend church and/or socialize, if so inclined.
Instead, some residents have felt trapped in their upper-floor apartments because they use wheelchairs or have crippling rheumatoid arthritis. They can't walk up and down the stairs.
Accessibility problems are so bad at Jenny Lind that on Thursday, June 20, a man who relies on a motorized wheelchair had to be painstakingly taken down the stairwell from his fifth-floor apartment by firefighters using a motorized stair chair.
He hadn't been outside the building in more than a month.
The owner of Jenny Lind has paid to put him up — along with other residents — at an extended-stay hotel while the elevators are out.
Jenson says Millennia needs to do a better job at relocating residents, too. About half of the tenants on upper floors have been moved to the extended-stay hotel, he says. Some who want to be relocated have not been moved, Jenson says, and some who have been moved no longer have the medical equipment they left behind at Jenny Lind.
I called Jenny Lind Monday, June 24, and was told both elevators still are not working. I identified myself as a reporter and was given no further information. The woman on the phone took my name and number and told me I would hear back from the legal department.
Of course, I did not hear back from the legal department.
If the Millennia legal department is busy now, I suspect it will become much busier should there be a fire and people are trapped.
Member of tenants' group calls SGF a ‘landlord town'
The situation at Jenny Lind is deplorable. It's been covered well by KOLR10's Lauren Barnas with stories on June 21 and on June 14. She reported that both elevators have been out of service since May 15.
KY3's Joe Hickman was there when fifth-story resident Elvester Kennedy was transported down the stairwell.
Hickman quoted Jai Byrd, with Springfield Tenants Unite.
“They’re still moving people in there even though there’s no elevators,” Byrd said. “I’m elated that Elvester is able to finally step out of the building after over a month but it should be because the elevators are fixed and the building is maintained. ... All of the things going on at Jenny Lind Hall, which includes the elevators, mold, pests and unsafe flooring, is the number one reason we need rental licensing and inspections.
“... And all these residents are still paying rent in an unsafe building with no elevators where they literally had to get the fire department out here to get someone off their floor. You’ve got people who can barely walk having to go up-and-down multiple flights of stairs to do laundry or get groceries. This is going on in our backyard and nothing’s being done about it. This is a landlord town. If it wasn’t, how many lawyers would be jumping on this case right now?”
I'm no lawyer, but isn't not having a working elevator for six weeks a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990?
Owner has bad reputation nationally
Would it surprise you that the owner of Jenny Lind has a terrible track record in managing similar Section 8 properties across the United States?
For example, an explosion tied to a gas leak at a Millennia property in North Little Rock, Arkansas, killed three people Oct. 4, 2022.
A class-action lawsuit seeks $860 million in damages ($10,000 for every one of Millennia's residents nationwide) along with $4.3 million in punitive damages.
The lawsuit also claims tenants complained to management about living conditions, mold, bed bug and rodent infestations and reported the smell of natural gas and carbon monoxide.
Millennia has been so bad at managing its approximately 275 multi-family residential communities that in March 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said “enough.” It will not commence any new business with the company for five years.
“We are committed to ensuring that people living in HUD-assisted housing have safe, decent homes and that our property owners manage assets responsibly in accordance with our rules,” said Ethan Handelman, with HUD.
Millennia, in turn, looks like it wants out of the Section 8 housing business.
‘Tacks actually stuck up through the carpet'
Jenny Lind tenants, along with advocates from Springfield Tenants Unite, have been complaining to the Springfield City Council about living conditions since January, Jenson says.
The problems extend beyond elevators not working. Jenson visited several of the apartments on March 13, at the request of tenants. He was with Hardinger and Zone 2 City Councilmember Abe McGull.
“There were windows that clearly had water that had leaked through so significantly that it had stained and bubbled the wall in areas,” Jenson tells me. “There were windows that couldn't close, which left residents and their units exposed to the elements.
“There was flooring so poorly maintained that tacks actually stuck up through the carpet and had sent one of the tenants to the hospital. Remember, all of these tenants have, from my understanding, disabilities. So they're a little bit more susceptible to harm if their units aren't properly maintained.”
Jenson wants city staff to investigate if there's a legal way to hold owners of all blighted properties — not just HUD properties — financially responsible for the costs of relocating tenants if the city pulls the certificate of occupancy.
“A common concern I've heard about stronger enforcement efforts for these types of property is that essentially, it would result in displaced residents,” he says. “If the city has to pull a certificate of occupancy, the residents should not have to move out without any sort of recourse.”
Non-working elevators a regular problem
Non-working elevators seems to be a theme with Millennia.
I looked at the federal lawsuit filed in North Little Rock. I saw that Exhibit 20 was a June 2023 news story with the headline: “Broken elevators at Wilkinsburg's Wood Towers leaves seniors and disabled residents calling for help.”
That's in Pennsylvania. According to a TV report:
“‘They take our rent, nothing is getting done in this building and I'm really fed up,' said Wanda Balthazar, who has lived in the building for seven years.
“She has rheumatoid arthritis in both knees and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. With the elevators out, she is walking up and down the stairs.”
She lives on the eighth floor.
According to a December story in the Atlanta Civic Circle:
“A carbon monoxide leak at a Mississippi property left a mother and child dead in September 2022. And a gas leak explosion hospitalized seven people living at a Florida complex in 2019.
“Millennia has maintained that the deaths and dangerous conditions at some of its properties are not representative of the company’s Section 8 portfolio at large, but critics have called Millennia a slumlord focused solely on collecting rent checks—especially from HUD.”
Greene County commissioner offers to make a call
I tried to contact our Congressman — Eric Burlison — to see if Millennia's involvement with HUD could prompt him to offer some stern words of persuasion to get this situation rectified. I did not hear back.
I even called Bob Dixon, Greene County presiding commissioner, doubting the county government had any jurisdiction in the matter.
It doesn't, Dixon says.
Dixon did say that part of the problem might be that there are few elevator repair companies these days. Dixon offered to call Millennia to see what he could do.
Springfield Director of Public Information Cora Scott informed me that city code requires elevators to be in good repair and functioning properly.
“That process provides a window of time for repairs to be made,” Scott says.
She didn't say what that window of time is.
It seems to me that after six weeks at a six-story building housing the elderly and disabled it's time to slam that window closed.
This is Pokin Around column No. 196.
