MISSOURI CITY, Texas – The owners of the Missouri City senior living apartment complex are speaking out for the first time after residents have complained for weeks about elevator outages.
KPRC 2 has been following the issues at the four-story Jubilee complex, which houses many seniors and tenants with disabilities, since learning that the property has been without working elevators since early May.
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The outages have left some residents feeling stranded in their apartments, while others are forced to take multiple flights of stairs for daily activities and medical appointments.
Now, more than seven weeks later, after numerous stories and the involvement of elected officials, the complex is responding.
On Friday—a day after Congressman Al Green and the property managers at Jubilee at Texas Parkway exchanged letters regarding a request for a meeting—the owners of the complex, Gardner Capital, stated that someone would reach out to Green to schedule a meeting.
Earlier this week, Green sent a letter to property management requesting a meeting to address the ongoing safety and maintenance concerns at the property, but on Wednesday, June 18, the third-party management company for Jubilee at Texas Parkway responded, declining the meeting.
Despite property management declining the meeting, Green responded, saying he, along with other city officials and residents, would still be in attendance at the meeting on Friday, June 20, at 2:30 p.m.
In response, we learned that property management closed its office for the remainder of the week.
Asset Living, the third-party property manager of Jubilee, released the following statement:
“We can confirm that the leasing office remained open all day on Monday, June 17, and was open during regular business hours on Tuesday before closing at 5:00 p.m. The temporary closure for the remainder of the week was made out of caution and to allow our on-site team to focus fully on resident support—including meal deliveries, wellness checks, and mobility assistance—during the ongoing elevator repair. Per direction from property ownership, the office will remain closed through Friday, June 20. In response to concerns about access to common areas: the laundry facilities have remained open at all times. The community room and downstairs restrooms are locked daily at 5:00 p.m., which is consistent with our standard operating procedures in place prior to this week. The well-being of our residents is very important to us, and we are committed to continuing all available support as we await the delivery and installation of the necessary elevator replacement parts."
Congressman Green called the closure of the community room “mean-spirited.”
Gardner Capital said beginning immediately, no later than Monday, June 23, they would deploy a full-time onsite care team for Jubilee, with at least one person assigned to each floor to assist residents with errands, care and day-to-day needs.
The owners also said they are offering alternative housing accommodations to any resident who requests them at no additional cost.
“I think that this is a part of the positive development as a result of the exposure that this has received. We will continue to with the exposure and process. Let’s have a positive outcome. I think we are heading towards a positive outcome, but I don’t believe it will happen without that meeting,” Green said.
The owners also added that they have issued, Assist Living, the third-party property management company, a 15-day Emergency Notice and Deadline to repair the broken elevators.
Green believes the meeting with the property managers and the owners of the complex is still needed.
As of Friday morning, Green said he and his team are still showing up to the scheduled meeting. It’s not clear if anyone from Assist Living or Garden Capital will be in attendance.
“For the meeting to have the positive outcome that we seek it’s going to be necessary to have the press- especially when tax dollars are involved. The people have a right to know,” Congressman Al Green told KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun. “We fully anticipate that this can end on a positive note, for that to occur, we need people to know how this is ending. I can’t end it and walk away with people wondering, ‘what happened at Jubilee? What happened to our tax dollars?”
