Residents of Panama City senior living complex plagued by issues

PANAMA CITY – Barbara Knaisch struggled to rotate her mobility scooter in the narrow hallway of her senior living complex into her friend’s apartment. Once inside, she greeted fellow residents, who all met to discuss the many issues they’ve had across the development.

The elders call Siena Gardens Apartments home. The apartments, at 901 W. 19th St., Panama City, are age and income restricted, with many residents using housing choice vouchers (section 8) and living off of fixed incomes, mainly Social Security.

To the seniors, many of their problems arose when the apartments were sold to Pacifica Siena Gardens LLC in 2019 for over $12 million . The new owner, Pacifica Residential is a multifamily management firm from San Diego. It owns 61 properties across the United States, along with one other complex in Bay County, Ava Kay Townhomes .

Some residents at the meeting were willing to go on the record, with others preferring to not to be named out of fear of retribution from the housing company.

Knaisch, 84, who has lived at the complex for more than 20 years, reached out to the News Herald out of frustration with the ongoing issues.

“Nothing is being done, they collect our rent every month, but they don’t turn around and do things like repairs,” Knaisch said.

In one instance, the residents said about 27 air-conditioning units could be out at any given time.

“My AC went out at the end of May, I reported it a number of times and talked to them about it personally a number of times,” said Martha Mosteit, 70. “I went two months without air conditioning. My apartment ran 90 degrees.”

Mosteit said she was dealing with some serious medical issues at the time, and the heat aggravated her discomfort.

“I really wasn’t feeling well from the start, then there was the ridiculous amount of heat,” she said. “If you drive around the complex, you can see the window units. Some people just bought their own and put them in their living room.”

Her daughter had to confront management before she received her own window unit, Mosteit said.

Another issue that angered the residents was the state of the complex’s advertised pool . As of Aug. 23, the pool was a bright shade of green. Knaisch joked that they dyed the pool early for St. Patrick’s Day. The gate was secured with a bike lock, so residents can’t utilize the area for tanning or access the screened-in public area where some of the women would play card games.

“Each summer, living here has been the hottest on record,” said Mary Richard, another resident. “The enjoyable part of living here has been using the pool. I used to enjoy swimming laps, which is good for us older folks.”

Residents at the meeting emphasized that it is usually closed and sparsely open. Google Earth imagery from 2022 confirms that the water in the pool was blue at some point.

Accessibility remains another concern for the seniors. One of the buildings had an elevator outage for multiple months, said one resident, who didn't want to be named. People with walkers and mobility scooters were trapped upstairs while others were using ropes to drag groceries to the upper floors. She said this had startled a resident of a different building, who was missing her legs below her knees and requested to be moved to the first floor because she feared she couldn’t get out if there was a fire. She said the fire department had to force the issue for her request to be granted.

Some of the notable maintenance problems could be seen as a sign of unaddressed wear and tear.

“My windows are the original style, one-paned windows. Every time it rains, I have to take my towels and put them in the window sill of each individual window to catch the water,” resident Sharon Johnson said. “When the towels overflow with water, it leaks into [the apartment’s] carpet. They said they can’t reseal the windows.”

Johnson also said she can see the outside through the cracks in her fully closed door, and she thinks some of these issues are leading to her $200 monthly utility bill.

Others talked about broken appliances, and some claimed to have encountered black mold.

“When people here call the office, they don’t get taken care of because they don’t answer the phone,” Knaisch said. She earlier said that the voicemail box was usually full.

Knaisch said she thinks many of the problems come from the management company’s inability to retain staff. She said that during her 20 years of living at the complex she’s seen about 130 different maintenance specialists, and in the past five years she’s seen 14 different people in the front office.

Some of the other residents maintained that the staff were underpaid.

The property was visibly not recently landscaped and the gates remain in the up position. The residents said it has been that way for some time. They also said outdoor lights do not work at night, which the News Herald was not able to verify.

The brochure available in the front lobby of the clubhouse reads: “Siena Gardens is more than just a place to live; it’s a home. You can be part of a community-oriented environment where we generously strive to meet the needs of our senior residents.” Knaisch said it was left there by the previous management company.

After unsuccessfully attempting to make contact with Pacifica Residential over several days, a resident invited the News Herald to a community meeting with the regional manager. Staff at the meeting asked the reporter to leave before he could get a comment from the company.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Residents of Panama City senior living complex plagued by issues