Equipment installed, current holdup is issuance of state permits, management says in latest notice to residents

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

An elevator maintenance project has left a number of disabled seniors feeling trapped on the second and third floors at the Ashley Senior Center Apartments on Siskiyou Boulevard for nearly a month. 

“Most people can struggle in and out of the building, but I know of two people who absolutely cannot get out,” said one resident who was willing to speak for the group by phone. 

He declined to be named and said he and other residents are wary of speaking out publicly due to “stories” of residents “being evicted for no good reason” from the publicly subsidized senior-specific housing complex. 

The stairs for the building are concrete and without carpet. Most residents have been able to make their way in and out of the building over the preceding weeks but not without worry, the resident said. Many have vision problems, heart conditions or mobility issues. At least one resident is wheelchair bound. 

One centrally located elevator serves the building’s two wings and three floors, the resident said. It had been displaying an increasing variety of problems over the last year. 

Sometimes it would appear to jump when moving between floors. One woman watched the doors close on her dog’s leash and was powerless to stop it as it began to rise to the next floor with the dog outside the doors, the resident said. A maintenance man was nearby at the time and was able to stop the elevator, but the story spread a sense of anxiety between residents. 

A notice was posted at 2 p.m. Aug. 27 that the elevator would be undergoing repairs expected to take four weeks with work set to begin at 7 a.m. the following day, the resident said. 

“We all thought, ‘Well, I guess we’re going to be stuck in here for a month,’” he said. 

Some residents are struggling more than others, mentally and physically. Disabled residents had not been restricted to first floor apartments due to the elevator, he said. At over 70, the resident counted himself, “among the able bodied,” still able to go up and down the stairs and assist other residents. 

“We’ve exchanged numbers. Some of us can get up the stairs but can’t carry things at the same time,” he said. 

Dog owners have been at a particular disadvantage with one senior woman forced to choose between carrying her elderly dog down the stairs or somehow disposing of its waste indoors. Another woman was in the process of rehabilitating and regaining the ability to walk, he said. She had appointments with doctors and physical therapists and has instead been trapped inside her home. This woman contacted her pastor after the notice was posted, unsure where to turn for help. 

Pastor Dan Fowler of Ashland First Presbyterian Church said a few members of his congregation live in the building. He initially believed there must have been a misunderstanding, that fixing an elevator in an apartment building housing seniors with mobility issues would be a priority. But then the problem dragged on. 

Technicians from Otis Elevators have been in the building over the preceding weeks but it has been around five days since any further work was done, the resident said. 

Attempts to reach a local representative for Otis Elevators were not immediately successful. 

The management office at the building closed around a week ago to residents, stating that, due to COVID, access to the office would be limited to appointments only, the resident said. 

The elevator issue is not the first time residents have felt management at the complex fell below expectations. 

A resident of the building for six years, he said “everybody’s got stories,” of problems with management at the building. For a period of time the office appeared to struggle to employ a manager and experienced a high turnover rate. 

A call to the phone number for management at the building was not immediately answered. The voicemail message stated that the apartments are equal opportunity and the building is accepting applications for one and two bedroom apartments. 

A day after receiving a voicemail from Ashland.news, Miriam Bogarin responded with an emailed statement regarding the issue, referring to it as “the elevator modernization.” 

“At Ashley Senior Center Apartments we have properly informed all of our Tenants as well as government Agencies of the elevator modernization we are currently undergoing,” Bogarin wrote. 

The project will take a minimum of four weeks but may last as long as 10 to 12 weeks, she wrote. Contractors at the Otis Elevator company informed building management if they allowed the elevator to fail or continued to defer this project repairs could take six to 10 months as some parts were obsolete or difficult to obtain.

The Ashland Police Department and Ashland Fire & Rescue and “our alarm monitoring company” were notified of the project and that it would take “approximately four weeks.” 

“We will provide our Tenants with updates as we receive them to ensure we provide them with all the information. … The safety of our Residents is of vital importance, and we continue to reiterate to contact 911 for emergency assistance,” she wrote. 

The resident said the woman who is most affected by the loss of the elevator was able to get assistance from AF&R to get in and out of the building once, but the department can’t be expected to assist seniors regularly. 

As the weeks without an elevator dragged on, residents have been working to contact not only trusted sources such as a pastor or local media but have also contacted the federal agencies and the Fair Housing Council of Oregon. 

“We have not been idle,” he said. 

A phone call to the Fair Housing Council was not immediately returned. 

The housing complex is subsidized with Federal funding and is one of only two local options for senior-specific housing offering Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations and rent adjusted to income, the resident said. 

According to a listing on the website Affording Housing Online, the apartment complex is supported by a rural renting housing loan program — Section 515 housing — through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is also subsidized through HUD’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. 

After residents reported the issue at the federal level, notes appeared from management informing residents trash receptacles would be provided in the hallways. Bogarin stated management had supplied trash receptacles and that building staff have been assisting residents on the second and third floors as needed to carry or transport things.  

Less than two hours after management sent a statement to Ashland.news, the resident said notices again appeared and residents were given their first update on the project which specified permits from the state were the cause of delay at this stage and all new equipment has been installed. 

Bogarin is the district manager for the CBM company who ultimately owns the apartment complex. 

The resident said for those living in the building, the previous weeks have been punishing. 

“It has put a lot of us under great mental stress. For weeks this has kind of dominated our lives. …  We don’t know when this is going to end,” he said.

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.