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Tower Of Terror: Disabled & Elderly Apartment Residents Still 'Trapped' By Broken Elevator

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MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – Disabled and elderly residents of a HUD-subsidized, seven-story apartment building on Miami Beach say their safety is in danger after not having elevator service for 11 days.

The chief operating officer of Triumph Housing Management, which manages the Shep Davis Apartment building at 23rd Street and Collins Avenue, says he hopes the elevator will be fixed soon. But residents say they are at the end of their wits.

Rosalba Ortega told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that she cannot move without her walker and says she has been trapped on the sixth floor since the elevator broke on August 12th.

"It's been hard," she said. "Friends come over and help me with stuff but it's been really hard. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I called management today and said I need help getting down from the sixth floor. He knew that, had an appointment. I may have to call the fire department tomorrow to get down. It's for my heart doctor. I have to get medicine, and if I don't get my prescription I won't get my medicine."

Ortega added, "I don't go down stairs. I can't go down stairs. I have to go on the elevator. I feel like I want to go somewhere and cry. I don't know what to do. I don't know who will help me."

Aldo Lajes said he has problems it's his knees and says it is truly a struggle to reach the sixth floor.

"I am tired of this situation. It is up and down. This is not the first time. This is too much," he said.

Elsie Ramon, who also lives on the sixth floor, said, "It's really a big mess. This is the biggest mess of my life. I just heard the motor is not working. When you walk in the stairwell, it is dirty and disgusting."

Otilia Saint-Yves, who is asthmatic and diabetic, coughs when she walks and says she too has been trapped on the sixth floor because she is not able to use the stairs.

"I am going crazy," she said in Spanish. "It has been 11 days and I've never been in prison like this before. It's like a cancer. I can't go downstairs. I feel like a caged bird. This is horrible. This is depressing. To go downstairs I feel like I have to call an ambulance."

Modesto Sotorongo, who lives alone on the seventh floor, said he is barely able to get up and down the stairs.

"I am 81 years old. I get tired easily. I feel bad," he said.

The building's management company is under an order issued by County Court Judge Teretha L. Thomas on Friday to "immediately provide (residents) with food and grocery delivery, medicine delivery, laundry service, mail access and other daily activities while the elevator remains broken."

Residents said representatives of that company were providing some help to them with deliveries inside the property but they felt they could do more.

The situation is being monitored by Jeffrey Hearne, the director of Litigation for Legal Services of Greater Miami.

The building was constructed in the 1920s, according to Paul Ponte, the chief operating officer of Triumph Housing Management. Ponte had said the motor in the elevator had to be rebuilt.

Ponte told D'Oench that the "motherboard" of the elevator blew after testing on Friday. He said a new part was being shipped and he hoped it would reach Miami Beach by Tuesday.

"When it does," he said, "we have three elevator companies on stand-by to do the work. This is an old elevator for a 1920s building. Parts are obsolete and hard to get. This has been a challenge. In the long run and this is down the road, we will eventually want to replace the elevator. But right now, we are working hard to get this taken care of and we are working with the Miami Beach Commission."

CBS4 learned that three days prior to the problem with the elevator, city inspectors issued nine citations for the building on August 9th. Citations were issued because annual testing reports were not provided for smoke detectors, sprinklers, the fire pump system, fire alarms and the standpipe system.

The citations also said guardrails were missing and needed repair and stairway doors had been propped and a report had not been provided for emergency lighting tests.

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