INDIANAPOLIS — Residents of a four-story senior apartment building in Brownsburg have been forced to take the stairs for days due to a broken elevator, with no word on when it will be repaired.
Broadstone Pointe's elevator went out on Tuesday, and its residents are worried about their safety with the stairs as the only option.
"Yesterday, I found a neighbor of mine struggling, so I helped him up," said Broadstone Pointe resident Gale Brock. "However, I'm a diabetic, so when I got to the fourth floor, my blood sugar dropped."
"It takes me 30 minutes to get up to the second floor," added resident Linda Lucas. "I'm 80-years-old. I'm too old to put up with this."
The building's owners, Kittle Property Group, did not respond to WRTV's request for an explanation or an estimate for when the elevator would be repaired. However, Brock claims building managers told her the elevator would not be repaired for a few weeks.
"Living in a place that you don't feel safe in...you don't go to sleep, you worry about it," Brock said.
Residents say several of their neighbors with mobility problems on upper floors are unable to come down to the first floor because of the broken elevator.
"We have a lady on my floor who panics because she's worried about her friends upstairs," Lucas said. "She would've been down here for this interview, but she's got bad hips and she can't go on the stairs, either."
The ones who can use the steps often have challenges doing so, especially when carrying groceries.
"A neighbor was coming up with two sacks and I said, 'Are you going to make it? Do you need help?'" Lucas said. "She said, 'This is my third trip.' She could hardly breathe."
"I can get up there pretty easy, but not a lot of people can," Brock said. "However, my heart rate goes up and I get a little dizzy because of my diabetes."
While there is no law specifically requiring functioning elevators in senior housing facilities, regulations from the Indiana Department of Health contain language such as "the facility shall make provisions for the handicapped as required by state or federal codes" and "the facility shall house residents only in areas approved by the director for housing and given a fire clearance by the state fire marshal."
Brock said residents have called both the fire marshal and the Indiana Department of Health for assistance.
"We were instructed by the fire marshal that if someone is stuck in the stairway, call 911," Brock said.
They hope the elevator is fixed soon so that residents do not have to risk taking trips up the stairs.
"We have nothing we can use but our bodies, and our bodies are high on the mileage," Brock said.
