Representatives of Springfield Tenants Unite (STUN) plan to speak at Monday night's Springfield City Council meeting. They, along with the NAACP, Jenny Lind Tenants Union and League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri, are planning to support residents of Jenny Lind Hall, which has been without an elevator for more than a year.
STUN met with residents of Jenny Lind Hall Sunday evening to write letters to council members – specifically, Callie Carroll. She expressed concern at the August 12 city council lunch about a requirement in the Healthy Homes Guarantee, a pilot program being considered by council, for landlords to either live in urban service area of Springfield or have a property manager who does. That's after Mayor Jeff Schrag said the requirement "seems overreaching to me."
Martin Gugel, director of Building Development Services for the City of Springfield, said they have a problem with absentee owners. "The idea is to have somebody local who can deal with the issues."
The Healthy Homes Guarantee would require rental licenses and rental inspections. The goal is to improve the safety and quality of rental housing for tenants while helping landlords meet the minimum standards, according to Gugel. The 18-month pilot program would focus on the West Central Neighborhood, which has a high concentration of rental properties vs. owner-occupied and has had numerous blighted and nuisance cases.
Jenny Lind Hall, an affordable housing community for those 62 and older or with disabilities on S. Jefferson, is owned by Millennia Housing Management in Cleveland, Ohio.
"We know that situations like what's happening here at Jenny Lind happen because of absentee landlords," said Alice Barber with Springfield Tenants Unite. "When the city can't hold them accountable, they will continue doing what they're doing here."
She said residents of Jenny Lind, a six-story building, have given up hope of their elevators being fixed. Some, who were moved to hotels because they were unable to leave their apartments with the elevator broken, still haven’t been able to return.
Jenny Lind resident, Amy Moreau, has had several back surgeries and was doing great after the last one, she said, but after having to climb stairs to get to her apartment, she’s hurting again and using a cane. She attended a city council meeting in February to share her concerns and plans to be at Monday night’s meeting.
"We have a new mayor now," she said, "so we're hoping that this council members and the mayor will pull together and help us help everybody else here."
Millenia sent letters to Jenny Lind Hall residents dated July 25 that told them to prepare for noise and dust as the elevators are modernized. The letter said to expect equipment and supplies to arrive in the common room soon. So far, no equipment has arrived.
