KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- For Vivian Jackson, life at the Emanuel Cleaver II Senior Living Community center hasn’t delivered on the quality housing, relaxed atmosphere and welcoming community that was promised.
Instead, it’s been a nightmare.
In the span of three years living there, Jackson, a retired teacher, has been injured several times when her apartment repeatedly flooded.
She has found management careless in responding to her problems and making repairs. Worse, the property managers are now accusing the 68-year-old grandmother of throwing disruptive parties with loud music and excessive numbers of guests, she said.
Management has said it will not renew her lease and she must leave by July 31. Otherwise, they will take her to court.
Jackson, who does not move around easily because of her injuries, says the accusations that she is partying are false and, in fact, absurd.
The only outside guests she has had are her friend and nurse who visit during the day and her sons who come to help her at night.
If she is forced to leave, Jackson said, she does not know where she will go or who will help her find a place to live.
“I’ve gone to my church, and other people,” Jackson said. “I don’t want myself put out on the street…my daughter can’t help right now she’s in Georgia. I just need some help.”
Virginia Sanders, a home nurse who has been helping Jackson for four years, said she has seen the injuries Jackson suffered from flooding in the unit. She said the claims that Jackson is violating her lease by partying or having too many people over are just crazy.
Sanders said she thinks the property management has a problem with Jackson’s sons coming in to care for her during the night and being in the home because they are not on the lease.
The Emanuel Cleaver II senior living center, 7630 E 79th Street, advertises itself as offering quality, affordable housing for seniors 55 and older. It houses over 50 elderly residents, according to its website.
Management at the senior living center declined to comment on this story. The senior living center is partnered with St. James United Methodist Church, which referred questions about Jackson’s story to a property management company based in Leawood.
Matthew Helfant, a spokesman for Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, said Cleaver is not involved in the operation of the senior living center. According to the church’s website, the center is named after Cleaver because of his past service as a pastor at the church.
Forced to move from her home
Jackson is not easily able to pack up and move. She is on a fixed income and uses a cane to get around.
She has suffered from severe nerve damage for 20 years, and since moving into the senior living center her health has only gotten worse.
The flooding in her bathroom has caused her to fall more than once, injuring her arm and leg.
Jackson and her daughter have been in touch with management and the maintenance staff about the flooding. At one point, management had Jackson placed in a hotel while repairs were made. But after she moved back in, the flooding continued.
Jackson’s doctor wrote a note to management, asking them to allow Jackson to get out of her lease so she could find safer housing.
The note detailed Jackson’s health problems and the impact of the repeated falls. Jackson said she has limited use of her hands because of nerve damage. In February, Jackson was hurt in a car accident and she is still being treated for injuries to her shoulder and leg.
These challenges are part of the reason her sons come to her home to help her, Jackson said.
Her oldest son lives close enough to visit her, she said, and her youngest son lives in Shawnee with his family and tries to make the trip over when he can.
But in April, management at the senior living center told Jackson she will have to leave.
She has received three letters from attorneys at the Ramsey Barhorst law office in Kansas City, which represents the owner of the senior living center, telling her she needs to be out of the unit by July 31 or they will take her to court.
Emanuel Cleaver II Senior Living Community
Development of the Emanuel Cleaver II senior living center was initiated by St. James United Methodist Church. Construction of the senior living center finished November 2019, according to the architect firm Clark and Enersen.
When reached for comment on Jackson’s story, staff at the church referred questions to Jennifer Browning, the senior living center’s community manager. Browning did not respond to a request for comment from The Star.
According to court records, the senior living center is owned by a firm called STJDAL, LLC, which has partnered with the property management company Dalmark Group, LLC in Leawood.
Dalmark Group did not respond to The Star’s request for comment.
To help pay her rent at the senior living center, Jackson receives support from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Choice Voucher program, commonly known as Section 8.
Jackson pays at least 30 percent of her rent and utilities, while the housing authority covers the rest.
As a condition of the housing support, the federal government requires inspections of the housing units to ensure they are safe and clean.
Edwin Lowndes executive director of the Housing Authority of Kansas City Missouri said Jackson’s home passed a first inspection in July 2020.
But later that year, Jackson filed a complaint and the home was inspected again in October 2020. That time, the unit did not pass inspection.
Lowndes said when a unit doesn’t pass inspection the housing authority sends a notice to the landlord to have the problems fixed within 30 days. When a housing authority inspector returned in 30 days, the home passed the inspection, Lowndes said.
The home failed an annual inspection in 2021, then passed an inspection 30 days later, and has passed two annual inspections since.
Lowndes said inspectors did not observe any life-threatening situations that would have required immediate action. But, he said, if there was no evidence of flooding or visible signs of mold, the home could easily pass an inspection.
Sanders, Jackson’s nurse and friend, said she cleaned the home for Jackson because of her medical problems. So, she was not surprised the home passed inspections.
Problems with management
Margret Young, 71, said she had hoped to move into the senior living center earlier this year but had a bad experience with management.
After first looking into the senior living center, she was excited about the possibilities, she said. She communicated with a manager who told her she could view a unit at the end of February.
Young said she completed the pre-application process after meeting with the manager and was waiting to return in February to see her unit.
However, when she returned to look at the unit in February the same manager told her to come back in March.
In the intervening days,Young called the living center to set up a time to see the unit. But no one answered her calls.
In April, after several delays, Young was prepared to move in and had her security deposit ready.
Then she was told by a regional manager that the local manager she had dealt with was gone. The living center had no openings, the regional manager said, and had a wait list with 100 people on it.
“It was heartbreaking,” Young said.
Young said It’s unfortunate that Cleaver’s name is attached to the senior living center because management there treated her so poorly.
“It’s a big thing when you become a senior you don’t wanna be put to the waste side and a lot of these facilities make you feel that way,” she said.
‘I think she’s gonna be in a shelter’
Jackson is looking for a new home.
But since she relies on Section 8 to pay the rent, she is having a hard time finding a new landlord who will accept her housing voucher.
Jackson has filled out a document from the housing authority, called a transfer voucher, which tenants can give to landlords to try to get more time to find other housing.
But when she sent the voucher to her leasing office, Dalmark Group senior regional manager Beverly Robinson denied her request.
Jackson said Robinson did not accept the voucher and told Jackson that she must leave the apartment.
Lowndes said the landlord or leasing office is able to deny the request because the leasing terms from the landlord are not controlled by the housing authority.
In the meantime, Jackson said she has gone to local charities and several churches to find resources or donations to help her with the lease and to find a new affordable senior living center to call home.
Jackson said she’s worried because prices have risen and she doesn’t know where she will find any extra cash. She does not expect to get her security deposit back.
“I don’t have anybody to help me” Jackson said.
Sanders said she is also worried about where Jackson will end up.
“I think she’s gonna be in a shelter,” Sanders said. “Where she doesn’t need to be but because she can’t find anything on Section 8, where does that leave her?”
