LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – 6 News has an update on the ongoing situation at Holmes Apartments in Lansing.
People who live there have been dealing with bugs, trash and a leaky roof.
Just last week they were forced to leave because the city condemned the complex.
Now it’s up for sale.
Simtob Management, the company that owns Holmes Apartments, says it has 127 of its 674 apartments up for sale.
Simtob says it’s aware of the issues with Holmes Apartments and they’re on track to complete all renovations within the next 90 days.
But as those renovations continue, the people who were kicked out of these apartments are still looking for housing.
That’s because the replacement apartments Simtob moved them to are pink-tagged. That means those residents are staying in a hotel.
As it turns out, the City of Lansing has been paying for their hotel stays.
That’s something Mayor Andy Schor says needs to change.
“It’s not somewhere that I want people to live if there in terrible condition, but again I also don’t want them homeless so we need to make sure they’re are re-housed in a safe place and right now if taxpayers are paying for that, I would rather the management company pay for that but we can’t do that under the law. And we’re hoping the legislature will change the law to allow us to keep those landlords that are bad landlords responsible,” said Schor.
Simtob sent the following statement to 6 News.
In February 2023, we listed 127 of our 674 apartments for sale in Lansing, Michigan. This listing is only 19% of our portfolio. We are long-term investors in the City of Lansing and intend to continue managing and owning properties for the foreseeable future. 547 apartments are not for sale, and we would not accept any offer.
We are aware of the issues at Holmes Apartments and are on track to complete all renovations within the next 90 days. We are meeting with our architect at the property tomorrow, Tuesday, March 28th, to discuss and design a plan for the property. We will be able to have detailed timelines by the end of this week once we create our plan.
As of today, Monday, March 27th, we passed the interior inspection for all the units at 1317 E Kalamazoo Road. We completed all the repairs over the weekend to ensure we would pass the follow-up inspection today. One small repair on the water heater is needed before removing all of the pink tags. We are on track to have the repair completed by the end of tomorrow and will have it reinspected then. I would like to clarify that all tenants in the 1317 building currently have hot water, and the in-progress repair is a small issue to increase the longevity of our water heater.
Simtob Management
