The largely senior and disabled residents of Wright Park House apartments say they have been left with limited access to and from their apartments -- and therefore to necessary services -- for more than two weeks since the breakdown of their only elevator.
"We're just a bunch of old people missing out on essentials, stuck in the building," said Beverly Bashant, a Wright Park House resident in her 60s. "They don't care."
Kathleen Waters, president of the Tenant Association at Wright Park House, a seven-floor affordable-housing apartment building on South G Street in Tacoma, told The News Tribune on Tuesday the elevator first stopped working on April 26.
Since then, building management has been largely unhelpful and unavailable, declining to provide a timeline of when the elevator would be fixed, she said.
The News Tribune reached out to Redwood Communities, which manages the building, via phone and email with requests for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The apartment complex houses many vulnerable residents who have now been struggling to get in and out of the building, including to get groceries and medications, said Waters, an 80-year-old resident living on the fifth floor.
She added she was frustrated with what she felt was a lack of care and communication from the building's management and confusing notices regarding the situation. The building's property manager is only present two days a week in a seventh-floor office, and the phone number posted for residents leads to management at The Winthrop -- a downtown affordable-housing property owned by Redwood Housing and also managed by its affiliate, Redwood Communities -- and only takes messages, she said.
The News Tribune called the phone number given to residents for property manager Kendal Stearns. A person answered as "The Winthrop" and upon a request for comment, directed The News Tribune to speak to their lawyers before ending the call, allowing no further questions.
In a May 2 notice Waters shared with the News Tribune, management said it was awaiting parts to repair the elevator and told residents to "hold off on submitting rent checks until further notice." Later on May 9, another notice shared with the News Tribune stated management hoped to "clear up any confusion from (the) initial letter stating to hold on to rent payments," adding that "rent must be paid" and that management would come by to collect if residents were unable to reach the seventh-floor office for drop-off.
"So they're willing to come and get the rent check but not help anybody with the laundry," Waters said. "... Although she's sitting up there, you know, offering help, as she says, we either have to go up there to get to talk to her, you know, we can't call her. So it's just a catch-22."
Bashant told the News Tribune on the phone Friday that she feels trapped in her third-floor apartment because she is unable to traverse the stairs.
Recently, she came home in a wheelchair from a hospital stay only to find that the elevator was not working, she said. Despite being in recovery from a recent surgery and having a rod in her leg that can complicate her movement, she said she felt she had no choice but to try to climb the stairs. Bashant said she crawled up one and a half flights of stairs before collapsing and calling the fire department, which came and helped her up to the third floor.
"I'm sitting here scared to death every waking minute that I'm going to die," Bashant said. "We live like we live in the building alone, trying to survive."
Unable to get out and go shopping, Bashant said, she has had to get groceries delivered, adding that sometimes deliveries go missing because she cannot come down the four flights of stairs to receive them.
She added she has missed out on follow-up care visits and medicine she needs. Although a nurse arrived for a care visit, she was unable to climb the stairs and rescheduled for the next week instead, Bashant said.
"If I could just get downstairs, there's a beautiful park just across the street, and I'm supposed to be doing physical therapy rehab," Bashant added. "But if I can't get down, I'm getting weaker -- I just have to lay here."
Vice president of the Tenant Association Michael Allen, a 67-year-old resident on the third floor, told The News Tribune on Tuesday that the pain in his bad knees has been exacerbated by the now-daily treks up and down three floors of stairs to get to his apartment.
"With my really bad knees, is just it's torture to go anywhere, to go to the grocery store, to go upstairs, to do laundry. It's absolute torture," he said.
Allen said he has had to reconsider buying certain grocery items to try and lighten the load going up the stairs. A gallon of milk, for example, was difficult to bring up to his apartment recently, he said. He added he was trying to get his cat's bulk food delivered because he wouldn't be able to carry it up himself.
Last Monday, management posted a security guard at the building during the nights and weekends following resident reports of unhoused trespassers in the stairwells, Waters said. Management also has not fixed severed security wires on bottom-floor emergency exits, allowing people to enter without the alarm sounding, Allen said.
Allen said residents were told the security guard would be present only until the elevator was fixed. Waters added the trespassing has been an issue raised to management for months with no action until now.
"I couldn't have my granddaughter come to visit me, for example: A, because of the graffiti in the stairwell. B, because she might encounter a homeless person who, I don't know, might try to grab her or something," she said.
Residents have been turning to each other and local volunteers for help. Water said some apartments have consolidated grocery runs to help those unable to leave.
Building management suggested residents ask the security guard for assistance with the carrying things upstairs, Allen said, but did not provide any contact information to request that help.
"There's no way to really contact them, you know, if I knew where he was or something," Allen said. "I mean, I don't see the practicality of me going outside and going up and down stairs, trying to find somebody to avoid going up and down stairs."
Waters said the lack of a working elevator also has taken an emotional toll by isolating the building's residents. Many tenants used the elevator to get outside or go up to a seventh-floor community room to play bingo and meet with other residents, she said.
Now, those with limited mobility have little option but to remain inside their apartments every day, Waters added. She and other residents also struggle to carry their laundry to the seventh-floor laundry room, Waters said, adding that when they do reach it, residents sometimes wait hours for their laundry to be done to avoid extra climbing of the stairs, she said.
Although they don't know when the elevator will be fixed, on Monday night management offered some residents the opportunity to stay at a hotel, Waters said. Allen said he had not received any such offer.