Elderly and disabled residents stranded in Boston public housing apartments due to broken elevator

Robert Burres is effectively trapped in his fifth-floor apartment. He uses a wheelchair to get around, and the one elevator in the building is out of service.

Burres lives at the Ruth Lillian Barkley public housing complex in Boston’s South End, and the elevator frequently leaves him and other elderly and disabled residents stranded. But this time is the “worst.”

“This is the ninth day I've been held up in the apartment,” Burres said. “I’m trapped. I can’t even check my mail, it’s in another building. You can’t call to get something. You can’t order anything because no one’s going to bring it up to the fifth floor.”

A notice posted at the elevator by building management reads “The elevator in your building will be out of service until further notice” and listed hours that a tenant coordinator would be available to help.

The Boston Housing Authority said they hope to make repairs early next week.

“Unfortunately, due to the age of the elevator, replacement parts are not readily available and often take time to arrive,” a spokesperson for the housing authority wrote in response to questions from GBH News.

The first time Burres experienced the out-of-service elevator years ago, he waited in the lobby for hours with another resident, and then decided to drag himself up the five flights. At the time, he’d been training for the Boston Marathon — but even still, he said, it was exhausting.

Burres and other residents said people often get trapped in the elevator.

“The worst is when the children get trapped, they don’t understand,” Burres said, “They’re in the elevator screaming. Some of them don’t like to get on the elevator.”

The BHA spokesperson said the housing authority had done “wellness checks” to every unit and that staff are available to assist residents while the elevator is out of service. They plan to rebuild the elevator and several others in the complex.

But the problem is far from unique in public housing.

“This issue is symptomatic of the chronic underfunding of the Federal Public Housing program over many years and decades, which has resulted in deferred capital needs and old, outdated equipment,” the BHA spokesperson said.

64-year-old Virginia Dillard lives on the third floor. In her home, she uses a wheelchair, and she relies on a rolling walker to get out to her medical appointments and get groceries. She said she missed a long-scheduled neurological test last week because the elevator was out of service.

“I depend on that elevator to go down and up,” Dillard said. “If I was in danger and really had to get out of here, I probably wouldn’t even make it.”

Burres said he depends on getting out for daily bike rides to help his mental health. Now trapped, he said, he feels depressed and angry.

“I feel like this wouldn’t be happening if I didn’t live in a marginalized community. That’s the bottom line.”