Seniors struggle at Sangamon Towers

Early on a Friday morning in late August, a group of Springfield seniors sat around a table outside Sangamon Towers, the apartment building they call home. It was a cool morning, out of the norm for the month’s heavy heat, and some wore light jackets. 

“Everybody in this building should be able to come out here and enjoy a nice morning like this,” said Dennis Pettinger, a resident of the building at 424 N. Fourth St. in downtown Springfield for the last 10 years. 

There used to be many seniors who would sit around outside and chat, but fewer feel comfortable doing so now, Pettinger said. Residents told Illinois Times that is because they do not feel safe. 

The Sangamon Towers apartment building is advertised online by its owner, Pacific Management, as “a community of independent living senior citizens.” However, residents and their caretakers say the requirements for living there have changed over time, telling an IT reporter that the criteria for residents changed in 2020. 

The building owners receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to offset the cost of rent for low-income tenants. While the Springfield Housing Authority administers the housing choice voucher program – formerly known as Section 8 –  for Springfield and Sangamon County, it does not own or oversee Sangamon Towers.

“The housing assistance at Sangamon Towers is not issued by SHA,” said Melissa Huffstedtler, deputy director of Springfield Housing Authority. “The SHA has nothing to do with this property.”

The changing composition of the building, combined with relaxed security and a constant battle with pests, has made Sangamon Towers a place where seniors are afraid to stay, according to many residents. But for most, it is the only option they can afford.

Judy Redding, 80, moved into Sangamon Towers in 2012. Redding, like others, said the building was nice when she moved in. She recalled sprinklers watering green grass, picnic tables and flowerpots. It was common to see rabbits hopping around then, she said.

Now, following illicit substance use and numerous reported acts of public sexual indecency on those picnic tables, they have been removed, leaving seniors few places to gather. And instead of rabbits, there are rats.

“There’s a lot of us who would love for it to be a senior building again,” Redding said.

While Pacific Management did not respond to interview requests, residents and home health workers told IT they estimate a third or more of current residents are not seniors. The building has 122 units, and while several are currently vacant due to a recent fire, the Pacific Management website notes that waiting lists are common.

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Health and safety concerns

Many seniors expressed frustration with the building’s proximity to Washington Street Mission, directly south, and St. John’s Bread Line, run by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Springfield, across the street. The Mission provides services to the unhoused including clothes and hygiene items, showers, laundry services and a warming and cooling center during extreme temperatures, while the Breadline offers hot meals seven days a week to those in need. The most direct path between the two nonprofits for those seeking food and services is a small alleyway behind Sangamon Towers. 

“The traffic from the Mission to the Bread Line is constant,” senior resident Deborah Dishon said. 

The few tables and chairs that remain outside, the seniors said, are often taken up by those who do not live in the building. 

The seniors described extensive verbal and physical harassment from those encroaching on their space, including being cussed at for refusing to share a cigarette, having groceries stolen and being assaulted or injured in fights. 

Although he suffered a head injury following a fight with an unhoused individual outside the building last year, Pettinger said he empathized with the people he and others identified as making their space unsafe. 

“Most of us are just a paycheck away from being homeless ourselves, hell, a lot of us have been homeless,” Pettinger said. “So, I do have some empathy for them.”

Washington Street Mission Director Jarid Brown said the Mission has tried to work with building ownership to collaborate on safety measures for the neighborhood, but that Pacific Management was unresponsive. 

“The other neighbors in the neighborhood have all worked together to make the neighborhood safer,” Brown said. “And Sangamon Towers, unfortunately, has not been one of those neighbors that has worked with us and the other businesses on this block.”

The Mission does not allow drug use on its property and has worked closely with the Springfield Police Department to monitor the outside of the building and identify drug dealers in the area, according to Brown. 

Washington Street Mission also does not hesitate to have individuals who violate policy legally banned from the property, Brown added. He said the Mission asked Pacific Management to give the Mission permission to ban people from the Sangamon Towers property but received no response. 

“This isn’t a problem created by the Mission or by Catholic Charities,” Brown said. “This is a problem created by a building which is not providing adequate security measures for their own residents.”

Access to the building is easily obtained, either by residents inviting in guests or by intimidation from those seeking entry. Seniors showed a reporter photos and videos of people sleeping in stairwells and public spaces of the building. They also reported accounts of unauthorized visitors walking down hallways, shaking door handles to check for rooms that are unlocked to enter.

Residents used to conduct informal welfare checks on their neighbors, Redding said, but now are often too afraid to do so. 

“When I get in my apartment, the first thing I do is lock my door,” Redding said.

Dishon, a small woman who banters fondly with her friends, has lived in the building for five years. She told IT about being sexually assaulted in the elevator by a man who did not live there. 

But, because there are no security cameras in the elevators, “it’s your word against his,” Dishon said. While there are cameras in the hallway outside the elevators, Dishon told a reporter that when she made a complaint to the police, she was unable to obtain video footage from Sangamon Towers as evidence. It’s unclear whether she filed a formal police report. 

“I don’t come out of my room at night because I’m scared,” Dishon added. “I don’t like being like that.” 

Troy Blumenstein, 62, moved into a Sangamon Towers apartment in February. Within four months, he had been in two fights with people loitering outside. In the latter fight, the top layer of Blumenstein’s thumb was bitten off, photos show. Blumenstein said his attacker had a knife. IT filed a Freedom of Information request to obtain a copy of the police report but SPD denied it, citing privacy concerns. 

Building security is there to observe and report, but not to intercede, according to the seniors. 

Publicly available crime data provided by the Springfield Police Department shows a total of 25 incidents between January and July of 2025 at the 400 block of North FourthStreet where the building is located, including the report filed by Blumenstein after the incident that injured his thumb.

Data was most recently uploaded in early August before the time of publication, showing an average of 3.5 criminal incidents per month. In contrast, only a total of three criminal incidents for the same seven-month time period appear in the data for the 400 block of East Jefferson Street where Near North Village, another Pacific Management property for seniors, is located. 

The majority of the incidents around the Sangamon Towers property were classified as aggravated assault or aggravated battery, but also includes an act of aggravated arson that hospitalized two people in July. The data do not reflect a fatal stabbing that occurred in the building on Sept. 13.

The police report data also fails to reflect extensive drug use on the property as documented in photos and videos taken by seniors. It is not just the smell of marijuana in the elevator that irritates seniors, but also finding used needles discarded on the ground. Needle-stick injuries can transmit serious contagious diseases including hepatitis B and C and HIV, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

And, for seniors who have struggled with substance-use disorder, the exposure to people offering drugs can be a challenge of its own.

Pettinger said he’d recently found a half dozen used needles behind his truck and described turning down frequent opportunities to purchase drugs on the property.

“A lot of us are former addicts,” Pettinger said. “This is not an easy place to stay clean.”

Others who live at Sangamon Towers for its proximity to local hospitals while undergoing treatment said the near-constant noise of drinking and fights at night affects their sleep and their health.

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Bedbugs: ‘It’s an epidemic’

Those not troubled by the noise often battle another hurdle to restful sleep: the bedbugs that have long affected residents.

Doris Surrat, 70, moved into Sangamon Towers in 2015 and lived there until two years ago. Like others who spoke with IT, she said she experienced attempted assaults, non-residents trying to follow her into the building and stolen and damaged property.

“It’s just a constant harassment,” Surrat said. “It’s just one thing after another and no one seems to care.” 

But the final straw for Surrat was the bugs. Of the eight years she lived in the building, she said she had bedbugs for six of them. She said she paid for chemical treatments to fight them, but they would always come back.

By the time she left, she was storing items and furniture in plastic bags, trying to keep her belongings uncontaminated. She had to throw out an Italian leather couch, multiple beds and an antique ottoman – none of which she had money to replace on her Social Security income. She recalled thinking her own freckles were bedbug bites.

“It’s mental abuse,” Surrat said. “I’m a very clean person, but it’s an epidemic.”

Surrat was eventually able to move out and find another apartment with the help of Prairie State Legal Services, an organization that provides legal representation and services to low-income, elderly and vulnerable people.

Others were more resigned to their situation, saying they had nowhere to turn.

Redding said her three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren do not visit, in part because of her fear that they would bring the bedbugs home with them.

“We’ll never get rid of these bugs,” Redding said. “They’ll be around when we all die.”

Redding added that she wished the building’s management would understand their plight.

“Let them stay here for a month.” Redding said. “They should be locked in with the bedbugs, see how they like it.”

Multiple people reported getting bedbug bites from just walking across the carpet in the building. A woman visiting family in the building showed bites on her feet to Illinois Times.

Others complained of cockroaches falling from the ceiling, attracted to the building by piles of trash in and outside. 

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“Seniors deserve… security and dignity”

For some, the solution to the pests and security was isolation. Catherine, a disabled resident who asked to not use her full name for fear of retribution by management, said she has only invited two close friends to her apartment in the past two years, for fear of bringing in bedbugs.

“It’s totally isolating. You just can’t live a normal life,” Catherine said. “I can’t invite people over to my house. They’re either too afraid to come here or, God forbid, I would be mortified to have them see cockroaches in my hallway.”

Like many interviewed, Catherine declined to give her last name out of fear that she would face eviction as retribution for speaking to reporters. She alleged a neighbor of hers was evicted in the past when she became too vocal with her complaints. 

Many complained about long delays for maintenance repairs to key facilities in the building including laundry and elevators, causing extensive wait times. Until recently, residents said they had no available laundry facilities for six months, forcing them to take clothes to a laundromat or wash them in a sink. 

One of two elevators was out of order for nearly two months in the 15-story building, residents said. For seniors and people with disabilities, taking the stairs is not always a viable option. Some reported waiting an average of 15 minutes for the elevator and 30 minutes during busy periods. Many reported water leaks causing dark mold. Others reported vents and air conditioning units that did not work. 

Residents had no shortage of solutions they would like to see to remedy their situation. Some wanted the building to spray full floors, rather than individual rooms, when bedbug infestations flared – in accordance with guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some suggested more regular trash collection and regulations for residents whose lack of cleanliness attracts pests.

Many sought a more secure sign-in system for building entry, 24-hour security, cameras in the elevators and lights outside, as well as a fence blocking the alleyway behind their building to reduce traffic from those passing between the Mission and the Bread Line.

The Mission offered to pay for fencing to stop that flow of traffic, according to director Brown, but received no response from Pacific Management.  

Catherine suggested that management should hire an on-site resident to live in the building who would understand the conditions more intrinsically than other staff. 

“Would you want your mother, father, grandmother or grandfather living here?” Catherine asked of the building’s management.

Caregivers working in Pacific Management buildings, however, said the issues extend beyond just Sangamon Towers. One caregiver, who has worked in Sangamon Towers for over a decade, requested anonymity for fear of jeopardizing her employment. 

“This is a Pacific Management problem,” said the caregiver. “My seniors deserve to live with dignity and respect, with safety being the main priority.”

Pacific Management did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Pacific Management, formerly known as New Frontier Companies, was founded in 1975 by Republican fundraiser and lobbyist Bill Cellini. Cellini passed his ownership interests in the company to his children, William Jr. and Claudia Cellini, following his 2011 conviction for conspiracy to commit extortion and aiding and abetting the solicitation of a bribe. 

Jeffrey Richards is currently listed as the president and chief executive officer of the company, which also owns Park Towers Apartments, Washington Plaza and Near North Village in Springfield, along with two dozen other properties in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. 

Multiple residents from Near North contacted IT with concerns similar to those reported by Sangamon Towers residents. 

Ultimately, they all agreed that the conditions were not suitable for seniors and disabled residents.

“Seniors deserve safe, healthy, clean, living quarters that give them security and dignity in the last phase of their lives,” Catherine said. “Living in an environment like this is reprehensible for seniors.”  

Maggie Dougherty began reporting this story as a summer intern with Illinois Times while she finished her master’s degree with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She is now a Chicago-based reporter for Capitol News Illinois, headquartered in Springfield.

This article appears in November 13-19, 2025.