Olympia apartment building’s elevator issues leave some tenants stranded

When it comes to mechanics, the elevator at the five-story Capitol House Apartments in west Olympia has had its ups and downs this summer.

The elevator was shut down for about 10 days in July, leaving some elderly and disabled residents stranded on upper floors. The elevator wasn’t working intermittently last week.

On Friday morning it was shut down, but it reopened by early afternoon.

“We are worried,” fourth-floor resident Gurinder Sodhi, 64, said. “We don’t know how long it will last.”

Property manager Alex Morris said he and his staff have done everything they can to help residents who can’t or don’t want to take the stairs when the elevator’s been down. He did grocery shopping for residents, picked up their medications and ran other errands.

“We don’t leave them alone, specifically the elderly or the ones who were sick,” Morris said.

The 113-unit apartment complex is located in the former St. Peter Hospital on Sherman Avenue. Thirty-five of the units are Section 8 housing for low-income residents, and undergo inspections by Housing Authority of Thurston County.

“This management has a very long record with us, with absolutely no ongoing issues,” said Karen McVea, a rental assistance program manager with Housing Authority.

As for the elevator issues, McVea said the management firm has contacted her office each time it’s been down.

“I think they’ve done their best,” she said. “They definitely communicate well with their residents.”

Morris said he understands that residents have been inconvenienced by the elevator outages, but he said the situation is out of the management company’s control. The elevator was replaced in 2000.

When it broke in July, it was over a holiday weekend, so a repair company couldn’t get to it right away, Morris said.

Then, crews discovered they had the wrong parts, so new ones had to be sent from New York, he said.

“It’s coincidence that all of these things are happening,” Morris said.

On Aug. 21, after a regularly scheduled inspection, the elevator was shut down again, Morris said. Crews found damage to some cables that was beyond what is allowed by the state Department of Labor and Industries, which inspects and licenses elevators.

“There were a couple fraying, so L&I shut it down,” Morris said.

Some reinspections have been scheduled, so there likely will be more brief closures soon, Morris said.

“It’s going to be fine,” he said. “We still have some tests to do.”

Several residents approached by The Olympian said they did not want to talk about the elevator issue.

One tenant, who didn’t want to be identified, said she thought people might be afraid of upsetting the building’s managers. Another tenant, who wouldn’t give her name, said she didn’t think the elevator’s spotty closures were big deals.

Meanwhile, Sodhi has sent letters to county, state and federal officials because he believes the building managers aren’t taking the issue seriously. He said there are too many elderly and disabled residents in the building to have an unreliable elevator.

“It has to be replaced,” he said.

This story was originally published August 30, 2015 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Olympia apartment building’s elevator issues leave some tenants stranded."