HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Seniors at Parham Park Place apartments in Henrico's West End say they have been without a working elevator for about two months, forcing some residents to crawl up stairs or cancel medical appointments while management and county inspectors work to find a fix.
Barbara Temple, who has difficulty walking, said she has resorted to crawling to reach her second-floor apartment since the elevator in her building broke.
"I would say a good two months we've been without an elevator," Temple said. "It's not humane, it's not correct, it's not nice, it's not respectful to the elderly. We deserve better."
Temple has lived at Parham Park Place Senior Apartments, located off Parham Road near Hungary Springs Road, for four years.
Other residents described the situation as equally dire.
Lydia Kimber, 90, said the broken elevator has left her stranded in her unit.
"I can't walk, I'm wheelchair bound for nine years, so I'm stranded I had to cancel some of my appointments," Kimber said.
Brenda Cotman, 72, said the timing of the outage came at one of the worst possible moments for her.
"I had two heart attacks recently. When I got out the hospital I went to rehab, I called back to see was the elevator fixed and it was not fixed so my daughter had to practically pull me up the steps," Cotman said.
Residents say management has told them staff is available Monday through Friday to help carry items up the stairs.
A March 9 letter to tenants also informed residents they can call a company management contracted to assist anyone needing help going up and down the stairs.
But most residents we spoke with say the off-site service is still inconvenient, and they worry the temporary solution could delay a permanent repair.
"That affects all of us, not not one of us but from the 1st to the 3rd floor," Hazel Matthews, who recently had surgery, said. "We are seniors but we are not being treated like seniors."
Matthews said she speaks for herself and her neighbors when she describes their frustration.
"I feel like we are trapped, I feel like we have been forgotten," Matthews said. "We just need somebody on our side."
We contacted the building's owners and were told the person who handles media inquiries was not available but is aware of our outreach.
Henrico County's Department of Building Inspections provided the following statement:
Since December, the Henrico County Department of Building Inspections has been engaged in efforts to return the elevator at Parham Park Place apartments to safe working order.
The elevator has functioned at times but has been completely inoperable for at least the past month. Our inspectors have been in daily contact with apartment management, which has been working with a contractor to resolve the problem. During that time, multiple components have been ordered, delayed due to weather and installed only to learn that the problem was not resolved.
In the past two weeks, Building Inspections suggested that another contractor be contacted to provide a second opinion on the repair plan.
That second contractor was also unable to diagnose an appropriate solution. At that time, the building's owners decided to overhaul the elevator system's major components. We believe this approach should allow the elevators to return to normal operation in approximately two to three weeks.
This decision was not made lightly, as everyone involved understands the inconvenience that the residents have endured. To mitigate the situation, we recommended that the apartments hire personnel to assist the residents who have mobility limitations.
That service has been in place for several weeks now. Apartment management also has retained, as we suggested, a professional transportation service with medically trained staff who can safely move residents in and out of the building.
We fully recognize the hardships that have been placed on the residents and remain hopeful that the situation will be back to normal soon. Henrico and its Department of Building Inspections remain committed to helping the residents and apartment management anyway we can.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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