Stairlift brings relief to residents stuck in building with broken elevator

A broken elevator has left some residents of a Boston apartment building unable to leave, but a new stairlift has brought temporary relief.

When 80-year-old Silke Evans, who lives at the Villa Michelangelo Apartments in the North End, spoke with NBC10 Boston last Wednesday, she had been stuck inside for weeks.

“I feel imprisoned. That’s it,” she said at the time. “I feel like I’m in prison.”

Silke Evans, an 80-year-old woman living at the Villa Michelangelo Apartments in the North End, has been unable to use the elevator at her building for three weeks.

“She was stuck up on the third floor for a total of three-and-a-half weeks,” her daughter, Katharine Clark, said Thursday.

Thursday, Metro Management, which runs the building, installed the stairlift as a temporary solution while waiting for elevator repairs.

It allowed Evans to leave for the first time in nearly a month.

“They had food, and got to eat out, and just feel like a normal person,” Clark said. “She’s been looking kind of sad for weeks, so it’s the first time I saw some pictures where she was genuinely smiling.”

The fix brought major joy to Evans, with hopes of a long-term solution in the future.

“We’re not out of the woods. We still have a broken elevator. Hopefully, it’s not too many months with just a chairlift,” Clark said.

Jeff Buono, director of property management, told NBC10 Boston last week that the process to repair the elevator has been difficult.

“They’re estimating four to five weeks to get the parts and then four to five weeks for the install,” Buono said in a phone interview. “It’s tough to get parts in general. It takes longer to get them than it ever has before. So the systems now just need to be modernized. I mean, it does take a toll on our elderly population — it really does. And we do feel for them. They’re likely family to us.”

NBC10 Boston reached out to the management company for further comment Thursday, but staff had already left for the holiday weekend.