JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For nearly a month, Karen Brown has been sleeping in her living room just to stay cool.
“Inside my apartment it was about 120 (degrees),” said Brown. “It’s very frustrating.”
Brown lives in building 23 at Valencia Way apartments in Jacksonville’s Westside neighborhood.
In early July, she says the power went out in her building. Two days later, Brown says a man came to install a generator, but when he turned it on, it blew all of the AC units in her building.
She says she went to the leasing office to tell them about the AC being out but wasn’t getting straight answers.
A note from management was placed on her door. It said that the parts for the AC units had been ordered and repairs were expected to be completed in days.
“That whole particular day I looked out for the person to come to repair and put that piece in. Nobody showed up,” said Brown. The only person that showed up was the maintenance people with their little trailer with AC units.”
Brown says maintenance provided the 12 units in her building one mini window AC unit. Despite the mini AC unit, Brown says her apartment was still hot.
She filed a complaint with the city of Jacksonville on July 16th.
Since then, Brown says the city has visited the complex twice.
On July 27th, it issued the management company, Millenia Jacksonville, two warnings, including one for failure to maintain facilities.
We knocked on the leasing office door to speak with the property managers. The door was locked for admin meetings, but the property managers came to the door and turned away.
Action News Jax sent a follow-up email requesting a statement from Valencia Way Apartments about the AC concerns in building 23.
They later sent us this statement:
“Thank you for reaching out. To clarify, building 23 has not been without air conditioning for the past month. The building is currently operating on generator power, and any apartment whose central air-conditioning system is not operational has been provided with a window unit, so residents continue to have cooling.
We are actively working to restore normal electrical service and complete the necessary repairs to the affected central systems. Window units will remain in place as needed until that work is completed. The safety and comfort of our residents remain our priority.”
Valencia Way Apartments is HUD housing. We reached out to HUD for a statement but have not yet heard back.
Action News Jax also reached out to Millenia Jacksonville, the management company for Valencia Way, for comment. We have not yet heard back.
Additionally, we requested from the City records of code enforcement violations from Valencia Way Apartments. You can read their response to our request below:
“The Municipal Code Compliance Division has conducted inspections at the Valencia Way complex on numerous occasions over the past several years. There are currently 23 active code enforcement cases associated with the property. We have attached a comprehensive case history documenting more than 400 inspection visits since 2024, along with the associated code violations.
An inspection regarding Ms. Karen Brown’s complaint was conducted last week. A warning citation was issued to and acknowledged by the on-site management team. This is one of approximately seven separate active cases involving air-conditioning concerns at the complex.
City records reflect recurring maintenance-related complaints involving electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and other property conditions. These matters have been addressed through individual inspections and the applicable enforcement process. Most inspections at the complex are initiated in response to complaints received from tenants.
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