Residents at one Jacksonville senior living center said they are still without heat as the cold temperatures continue.
“It just has to get better,” resident Dixie Smith said.
Action News Jax first reported on Tuesday about the issues at the Riverton Tower Senior Center.
We talked with Smith, who said she’s lived there for the last five years. Her daughter told us they’ve tried to get the issues resolved.
“We’ve made complaints to code enforcement before; other residents have made complaints to code enforcement, and nothing ever seems to be done,” Smith’s daughter, Heather Clark, said.
They said a family friend of theirs reached out to the city, and code enforcement came out on Wednesday morning.
In that inspection, the city said code enforcement spoke with the property manager, who said the boiler is not working correctly, and they are actively looking for a company to make repairs.
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The city also said code enforcement found heat was working in all the common areas.
“So what, yay, there is heating in the common areas,” Clark said. “That has nothing to do with the heating in your home.”
And the city issued warning citations in five active cases; two of those are related to the heating issues.
Riverton Tower is owned by a Jacksonville-based nonprofit developer called Ability Housing. We reached out to Ability Housing to respond to the building’s heating concerns and were told that Riverton Tower’s HVAC system was installed by the previous owner of the building. Ability Housing said it hasn’t been able to easily repair the heating system, since they didn’t install it, and that they are currently working to either fix or replace it. Ability Housing sent us this statement on Tuesday:
“Resident safety is our top priority. All residents of Riverton Tower have been provided with portable heating towers at no charge to ensure their warmth and comfort while the main heating system is assessed. Our on-site property management team and maintenance technician are available to assist any residents in need of additional heating support until the situation is resolved, including delivery and installation of extra heating towers if needed.”
The city said the owners will have 10 days to correct the violations, or they will face citations.
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