CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. — Angry residents of a Prince George’s County senior living community are bracing for a 13th day without elevator service in a building where many say they are too disabled or sick to safely use as many as four flights of stairs.
Late Monday, a representative of Potomac Management, which operates the publicly subsidized St. Paul's Senior Living Apartments at 1207 Addison Road, reported the elevator itself is repaired after a 12-day outage, but remains out of service because a required state Department of Labor and Licensing inspection has not yet been completed.
Maryland Sen. Joanne Benson and Del. Faye Martin Howell were on site Monday along with inspectors from the Prince George's County Department of Permitting, Inspection and Enforcement to hear complaints from residents and to attempt to pressure state authorities to send an inspector immediately. As of Monday evening, no state inspection had been done and none was expected until Tuesday, according to Benson.
The elevator crisis is affecting the Phase II section of the complex, which is a four-story building. Residents complained that 13 days is far too long to wait for elevator repairs in a building filled with elders, some with disabilities.
Fourth-floor neighbors Almetrice Paige and Delores Walls described the isolation on their hall.
"(It’s) lot of people -- we can’t get down, you can’t bring in groceries!" Paige said.
"This is awful," Hall echoed.
Residents reported firefighters have been called to help get residents back and forth for appointments and church. Prince George's Fire/EMS authorities could not immediately confirm the claims.
The elevator in the building broke down on April 10 according to a representative for Potomac Management. Managers assigned maintenance workers to help deliver groceries and medication to stranded residents.
Benson and Howell called for a community meeting and accountability for the elevator crisis and additional issues they said were reported by residents.
According to the Prince George's County Department of Permitting, Inspection and Enforcement, a DPIE inspector conducted a routine quarterly check of the facility on April 9 and spoke to tenants about complaints.
The inspector wrote violation notices related to missing light covers, wires hanging from the ceiling, improper lighting of exit signs, missing information on posted 911 call procedures, open storage on the exterior (debris, furniture and bulk trash around the dumpsters) and overgrown grass and weeds along the fence line, according to a DPIE statement.
At the time the inspector found all elevators in working order, the DPIE statement said.
DPIE also reported that on April 13, DPIE received a 311 complaint that an elevator in the Phase II area was not operating. The same day, the inspector wrote a violation notice for the non-operating elevator and required that it be repaired immediately.
State inspectors followed with orders to shut down the elevator until repairs could be made, DPIE said.
According to DPIE's statement, apartment managers did not reveal that other elevators in the complex did not serve the Phase II building, leaving the inspector unaware that residents had no alternative elevator service.
DPIE records show 29 violation notices were issued to the management company for the complex from 2018 to April 13.