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Elevators Chronically Broken at 21-Story Home for Disabled, Residents Say

 Residents say the nonprofit Project Renewal has failed to resolve the building's elevator problems.
Geffner House
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HELL'S KITCHEN — Three times in the last year, Ruth Arcone, 57, got home from her night shift at a homeless shelter and walked up 16 flights of stairs to her single room in the Geffner House.

“That first day, I wasn’t very smart, I just kind of walked straight up,” Arcone told DNAinfo New York. “And I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Now I stop to rest.”

Arcone said the early morning hike has become a regular occurrence at Geffner House, a supportive housing building at 351 W. 42nd St. with more than 300 rooms for people who are disabled or formerly homeless. 

The building was slapped with a $1,000 fine in November for elevator violations and the Department of Buildings recorded complaints of five incidents so far this year in which the elevators at the 21-story building were not working.

Residents also filed two complaints last month about the building’s boiler and plumbing and said the pipes had broken on multiple occasions. Five tenants filed a suit against the owners in housing court on February 2, according to court records. 

The elevators have been a particular problem for elderly and disabled residents this winter, according to Arcone. 

“They’re trapped, they’re literally trapped,” she said.  

Kirtland Washington, another resident, said in addition to being out of service, the elevators also frequently jumped or got stuck.

"They're not working properly and need to be replaced," the 53-year-old said.

Geffner House is owned and operated by the nonprofit Project Renewal, which owns the for-profit company that manages the building, MRG Partners.

MRG received more $5 million in funding from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to renovate the building in 2013, according to city documents. The money is meant to fund painting, upgrades to the fire alarm system, heating and plumbing fixes, according to HPD. Construction on the project is 30 percent finished, they said.

Project Renewal said the elevator problems were a result of the ongoing improvements. 

"We had to renovate the building to make necessary upgrades to the entire plumbing system and make the units nicer for our tenants," said spokeswoman Anat Gerstein. 

"As with any construction project, there are some inconveniences and unexpected occurrences."

Gerstein added that the building's elevators were down three times in 2014, with two cases due to construction work, though tenants said they were down more frequently. On the occasions all three elevators were out, at least one was returned to service within a few hours, Gerstein said. HPD said they were looking into the elevator issues and would address them with the building’s owner.

A group of tenants has joined with organizer Betsy Eichel and an attorney from Housing Conservation Coordinators, a tenants’ advocacy group in Hell’s Kitchen, to demand that the elevators be fixed and to draw up legal agreements for the tenants.

“There’s a building with hundreds of people effectively stuck in their rooms,” Eichel said. “I know that it’s a consequence of a bigger renovation, but they have an obligation to keep up services while this is happening."

As of last week, the nonprofit hired a new company to deal with the elevator problems, according to Gerstein. 

"We take our tenants complaints very seriously," she said. 

But tenants complain that the work has failed to address the urgent elevator situation, and that the renovation has been fraught with problems.

In September, Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, State Senator Brad Hoylman and Councilman Corey Johnson sent a letter to Project Renewal head Mitchell Netburn requesting the fix them. 

“The long-term solution here is to replace the elevators,” Johnson told DNAinfo New York Friday.

Tenant Paul Mogel, 72, said he had never experienced all three elevators out at the same time, and that other tenants' complaints were overblown. "Of course it’s an inconvenience," he said. "It’s not the end of the world."

Arcone, who has lived in the building since 1998, pays $580 a month for a small room with a microwave and mini-fridge.

“You don’t expect luxury,” Arcone said, “but you do expect certain things to be provided, like heat, hot water and working elevators.”