For months, Jenny Lind Hall residents and others have repeatedly complained to Springfield City Council that elevators haven’t been working in the high-rise building.
“There’s people on my floor, on the sixth floor, that are in wheelchairs, and just can’t get out like that," said one resident. She came to Council’s February 26 meeting to voice concerns about Jenny Lind Hall’s owner, Ohio-based Millennia Housing Management company.
While the city says it’s not closing the 6-story building at this time, officials acknowledged in an August 30 news release that Jenny Lind Hall hasn’t had fully working elevators for most of this year.
The building consists of low-income housing for seniors and people living with disabilities. That includes some 67 tenants, according to the city.
Now, the city says Millennia has stopped communicating with Springfield’s building development services department. This news comes after a unanimous resolution passed by City Council on August 5. Local elected officials urged the federal government to investigate Millennia and enforce U.S. law to make the building safe for residents.
In the latest city-level action, Springfield officials say they’ll hold a nuisance hearing on September 17. If a hearing officer determines that the building violates city code as a dangerous, blighted or nuisance structure, officials say Springfield can order Millennia to fix the building within 30 days.
Should a building owner fail to comply in these types of cases, the city says it may repair the building and assess a special tax bill against the property, to cover the cost borne by taxpayers. Other consequences could include a sheriff’s sale to pay for the tax bill. In severe cases, the city can demolish a building.
The city says the building development services department began its investigation of Jenny Lind on February 2 and that on July 25, they posted a notice ordering the repair of the elevators. Since then, the city public information office says BDS staff have made multiple daily efforts to visit the building and contact management.
Ozarks Public Radio reached out to Millennia’s Cleveland-based offices on Friday, just after Springfield’s announcement.
A reporter spoke to the person who answered Millenia's main phone number: “I am seeking comment for a news story, immediately. Our local city government basically is cracking down on Millennia for a building called Jenny Lind Hall that the city says has not had [fully] working elevators for all of this year, and apparently, your company’s not communicating with our city government about resolving this issue. Is there any comment on that?”
The person who answered the phone said he was a call center worker with no knowledge of Millennia's corporate staff. He said he was not able to provide a name or phone number for any sort of company spokesperson.
Millennia is facing pushback in multiple U.S. locations, according to news accounts from local TV stations and newspapers based in Ohio, Tennessee and elsewhere.
Federal records posted online show that in December of 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued an exclusion order. That makes Millennia ineligible for doing business with the federal agency until December 13, 2028.
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