Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said many elderly and disabled residents were forced to cancel their Thanksgiving plans due to broken elevators at a Boston Housing Authority public housing complex that left them stranded in their homes.
Flynn said elevators were down Thursday at 19 Monsignor Reynolds Way in the South End, one of several multi-story buildings that encompass the BHA’s Ruth Barkley Apartments complex, where elevators are frequently out of service.
“We’ve had problems with the elevator system here for years,” Flynn said Thursday outside the complex in a video he posted to Facebook. “And once again, the elevators are down here on Thanksgiving. This is a major public safety issue. It’s a major problem and quality of life issue for these residents.
“Many called me and asked me for support during this Thanksgiving day. They were supposed to be going out with their families for Thanksgiving dinner. Now those plans are canceled because of the elevator breakdown, and they’re not able to leave their apartments.”
Flynn said he contacted Mayor Michelle Wu’s office and the Boston Housing Authority about the issue, which he said constitutes a violation of city, state and federal laws impacting people with disabilities.
“If there was ever a fire here, trying to get people down with disabilities would be a major challenge,” Flynn said. “We can’t accept this any longer. I’m asking for the BHA to treat residents here at Ruth Barkley with respect and dignity. The status quo is no longer an option.”
A Boston Housing Authority spokesperson refuted the councilor’s claims, saying that the elevator at 19 Monsignor Way went down on Wednesday morning, but was fixed by 9 a.m. Thursday, on Thanksgiving.
The BHA spokesperson, Lydia Agro, referred the Herald to an email BHA Administrator Kenzie Bok sent to Flynn at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, while adding, “We’re a little confused as he has subsequently been posting and reporting that the elevator is not operational, but that is not accurate.”
Bok told Flynn “the outage was caused by a fire alarm triggering the regular built-in fire safety protocols for the elevator, which as you know send an elevator to the ground floor until the fire alarm is cleared and a technician resets it.”
“The BHA has been reporting on the performance of this elevator for the past six months, in which period it has had no mechanical outages,” Bok wrote. “We upgraded both the floor and the elevator pit of the 19 Monsignor Reynolds elevator in September, and the elevator passed its annual inspection in October.
“So I want to reassure you that this elevator is in good working order for our elderly and disabled residents,” Bok added. “I am concerned that in this case, a shortage of third-party elevator technicians working due to the Thanksgiving holiday may have contributed to an unexpectedly lengthy delay for our residents in getting the elevator reset.”
Flynn pushed back on Friday, saying that by the time the BHA had communicated to residents that the elevator was up and running on Thanksgiving, they had already called their family members and told them not to pick them up or include them in their holiday plans due to the elevator breakdown.
He said he visited the Ruth Barkley Apartments in the South End again on Friday morning, and “talked directly with residents about quality of life issues, public safety challenges, the status of the elevators, pest control and trash pickup.”
“Residents expressed the following point to me: they want to be treated with dignity and respect,” Flynn said in a statement to the Herald. “Enough with the lame excuses and passing the buck from BHA leadership.
“For the BHA administrator to downplay the significance of the elevator breakdown on Thanksgiving morning is disrespectful to the residents, especially our seniors and persons with disabilities,” the councilor said. “These residents are neither invisible nor insignificant. They are our neighbors and deserve to live in a safe and healthy environment. It’s about respect.”
Flynn said he will be filing a formal complaint with the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board on Monday.
The Boston City Council has held two formal hearings on elevator breakdowns at the Boston Housing Authority’s Ruth Barkley Apartments, Flynn said.
The most recent hearing, on Oct. 16, led to an open meeting law complaint against the Council that was filed by Dawn Oates, a disability advocate who works with BHA residents experiencing accessibility issues.
Oates complained about “unequal treatment and viewpoint discrimination” by Councilor Liz Breadon, who chaired the hearing. Oates was a panelist and said she received far less time to speak on the issue than Bok, the BHA administrator.
As for the Thanksgiving elevator breakdown, Oates refuted Bok’s explanation that it first went down on Wednesday morning. She said the outage occurred Tuesday afternoon, causing residents planning to travel Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday morning to cancel their holiday plans.
While it was fixed Thursday morning, residents weren’t notified until noon, and only if they had opted into call system service updates, leading to further uncertainty, Oates said.
“This is not just a technical failure. It’s a human one that’s been ongoing for years,” Oates said. “Kenzie is the queen of making excuses for why the work is not done, and it seems like she is helpless to fix the situation. I have zero faith in the system at this point.
Oates said the BHA residents are fed up and will be “exploring legal options at this point because it’s gross discrimination and neglect, and living in a situation that violates city, state and federal law.”
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