Residents without elevator access join councilmember to call for repairs in East New York
Residents at a building on Flatlands Avenue have been stuck navigating recent flooding and their day-to-day lives without a working elevator.
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Residents at 12205 Flatlands Ave. are entering their third week without full elevator access, after leaking in the building's top floor suspended elevator service for the nine-story building.
"I am disabled, my husband is on dialysis, and he has the firefighters carry him down the stairs, he cannot walk, but they say they cannot do this they have to respond for emergency," said sixth-floor resident Victoria Malave.
And she wasn't alone as frustrated residents flocked to the lobby of the building to meet with Council Member Chris Banks to call on the management board of the property to fully fix the units.
While service for one elevator is up and running, residents tell News 12 that elevator frequently gets stuck, does not come at all or is also inoperable, saying that they are calling for more to be done.
"The blatant disrespect its so disappointing," said fifth-floor resident John Sutton, adding " I'm 83 years old with back issue and a knee that's been replaced, when I walk down I have to tell myself its just one floor, that I can make it and pray that I can get down."
Banks called the lack of full repairs unacceptable and called for DOB and other city agencies to intervene.
"People have a right to elevators, he said adding, "we've seen HPD and the Buildings Department. Step in when you had some landlords on egregious situations, that have come about, and they have stepped in and dealt with the situation and that went after the management companies. So we're asking for the same type, the same type of response."
News 12 reached out to the management company for the building and did not hear back.
