Seniors who live in a Portage la Prairie apartment building are frustrated because they are having a hard time getting out of their suites since the elevator broke two weeks ago.
"Every time I go up to sixth floor my knee gets a little tired and I'm puffing lots," said Alvin Ogilvie, who lives on the sixth floor of the seven-storey building.
He and 50 or so seniors, most with disabilities, live in the high rise on Saskatchewan Avenue in Portage la Prairie, owned by Manitoba Housing.
While he managed to use the stairs, others are stuck in their suites all the time, like 94-year-old Eliza Watson.
She says she can't use the stairs at all, forcing her to stay put in her second floor apartment.
"I think everybody should pray that it gets fixed. The good Lord can fix it better than all these idiots that are trying to fool around with it," said Watson.
Other tenants said the elevators have broken down before but never this long and sometimes they can't even let people in to help them because their buzzer system doesn't always work.
Manitoba Housing said it is working on getting the elevator fixed. They say they hope to have to have it running in a week and that maintenance staff are checking to see what's wrong with the buzzer.
In the meantime it says tenants are checked on by staff three times a day and are offered extra assistance for those who need it.
But Rachelle St. Cyr says Manitoba Housing is taking too long to fix the problem and worries about her mother on the seventh floor.
"It takes my mom about an hour just to get upstairs, an hour to get downstairs. So just decides she's going to be stuck in this place until they fix it," said St. Cyr.
St. Cyr says her mother and the other seniors in the building deserve better and hope Manitoba Housing can find faster solutions.
Manitoba Housing says one of the tenants with significant medical needs is being moved to a hotel until the elevator can be fixed.
