JENNINGS, Mo. – Last Christmas Day was not one to remember for senior citizens living in the Fairview Village Senior Living apartment complex.
“It was bad,” said Yvette Ellis, a resident.
A water line burst, and most of the apartment complex was flooded.
“Water was coming out the light fixtures,” Ellis said. “When I say water, it looked like an ocean pouring out the light fixture.”
Ellis has been living at the Hilton Garden Inn in Carsonville since the flooding.
“I’m starting to get sick, and I’m stressed out,” she said.
Rise Community Development, the company that oversees the flooded complex, has been paying for the hotels for a number of its residents and providing meals, according to Terrell Carter, the Executive Director for Rise. Montez Burks, however, was not initially one of those people.
“I just feel like they didn’t do me right,” Burks said.
Burks spent about two weeks trying to find a place to stay, between sleeping in his car and paying for a room at a boarding house.
“These people are not running it right,” he said.
Burks was eventually given a room at the hotel.
On Monday night, the Jennings City Council met to discuss the next steps for the building. If it can pass inspection, residents can move in by Feb. 6.
Jennings City Councilor Gary Johnson has worked closely with the people who were displaced.
“The happy ending looks like (the building being fixed), and residents can go back in and feel safe,” Johnson said. “And live their days in a healthy environment.”
Johnson said he would like the city to use its emergency funds to help senior citizens and adopt new legislation to stop this from happening again.
Burks believes a Feb. 6 timeline could be too soon, stating more problems can happen if the upgrades are done in a rush. He’s seeking legal help and wants the extra money he’s spent—a few hundred dollars—since being displaced refunded.