Carlos Soto has an added 100 feet and two flights of stairs on every trip to his front door. He says he has to carry his walker every step.

“My whole routine has changed,” Soto said. “I try to not go down as much. If I need groceries or something, I try to hold off and not do it.”

Soto claims the elevator — just steps from his second-floor apartment — has been out of order for over three weeks.

▶️ WATCH: Soto shares the impacts of the out-of-order elevator with Denver7’s Alex Dowd

Out-of-order elevator at DHA property leaves disabled tenants looking for answers

Despite the difficulty, he walks the path three or four times every day.

“I have to take out my dog, so she can go potty and stuff,” he said. “I need to go to the store, get groceries, and I gotta go to work in the morning, and in the afternoon, I gotta come back up.”

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, landlords must make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities. Colorado’s Safe Housing for Residential Tenants law says owners and landlords have to repair uninhabitable issues within two weeks.

Sen. Tony Exum Sr. — one of the prime sponsors of the bill in 2024 — said a place is “considered uninhabitable when there’s conditions that are unhealthy or unsafe.”

That includes when a disabled tenant is unable to easily or safely access their apartment. However, the landlord must be aware of the issue first. Then, “the onus is on the landlord to make reasonable accommodations to to fix the problem,” Exum said.

Are reasonable accommodations being made at Sol Apartments where Soto lives?

Denver7 reached out to Denver Housing Authority — which announced the Sun Valley apartment’s grand opening alongside its partners a little over a year ago — but they said they couldn’t accommodate the request for an interview or statement due to the Fourth of July holiday. They did offer to respond the following week.

DHA employees told Soto in an email that they were “working to resolve the elevator issues.”

The issue, Exum said, is common in apartments.

“There can be an extension [for landlords],” he said “For instance, if they’ve contacted a third party to do the repairs.”

Soto says the housing authority told him they had contacted a third party for repairs, but that they offered no repair timeline or alternative options.

“Maybe make [the building] more accommodating,” Soto said. “Plan A didn’t work, so let’s try Plan B now, and get me up here somehow.”

Under the Safe Housing for Residential Tenants law, landlords are able to move tenants to hotels or nearby properties until the issue is resolved.

Soto says until the elevator is working again, he’s forced to use the stairs or use the elevator and the sky bridge next door, adding even more time to his already long commute.

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Think of Saturday’s rugby match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park as a very physical audition.

The Nations Cup showdown between the USA Men’s Eagles and Portugal on the Fourth of July is another chance for Denver — long an epicenter for American growth in the sport — to showcase itself as a host city for the 2031 World Cup.

“We had that great moment at Dick’s last year where we qualified for the World Cup (by beating Samoa in the Pacific Nations Cup),” said national team captain Jason Damm. “Any opportunity to get out here, sort of in the middle of the country, feels like a connection point for the nation. It’s a good way to kick off this Nations Cup.”

Damm’s professional rugby roots are in Colorado. The Georgia native played for a team in Vail and for the Glendale Raptors, a now-defunct Major League Rugby franchise. Damm thinks Denver would be a “great fit” for hosting the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups, the first time the tournaments will be held in the U.S.

“We have a lot of guys now, and I’ve had the pleasure of playing with a lot of guys who went through that American Raptors program that was here for such a long time and really wanted to look after the development of some transition players (from other sports),” Damm said. “There’s just so much great rugby out here and good competitions.”

In addition to the legacy of the Glendale/American Raptors as well as burgeoning club and youth scenes, Denver is home to “Rugbytown USA,” the city of Glendale, which boasts the first rugby-specific stadium in the U.S. at Infinity Park. That’s where Colorado’s pro women’s team, the Denver Onyx, plays. The Onyx are the reigning champions of Women’s Elite Rugby.

And the college scene is solid, too, including strong performances by local women’s squads at this spring’s sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship, where CSU and CU placed in the Division I-AA tournament, Colorado Mesa was the Division II national champion and Mines was the Division III national champion.

All of that background makes Saturday another important milestone for rugby in Colorado. The Eagles have two locals in their player pool in prop Kaleb Geiger (Castle View High School) and lock Sam Golla (Denver East High School), but both players are coming off surgery and are not on the Nations Cup roster.

Golla, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLR Draft and the league’s 2023 rookie of the year, sees Saturday as another chance for Colorado to prove its support of the sport amid World Rugby’s ongoing selection process for the 2031 World Cup.

There have been many great offensive linemen in Denver Broncos history, so this list is likely going to vary greatly from person to person. In fact, my take might be a little too bold, but I’m sticking with it.

At the top spot, I think Garett Bolles has earned it. Since coming into the league as a first-round pick in 2017, he has grinded through one of the worst periods in Broncos’ history and grown from beleaguered oft-penalized first-round bust into a perennial All-Pro caliber left tackle. Even more, he has stayed a Bronco through his entire career. The rest of my list speaks for itself and is a throwback to Super Bowl greatness.

Here’s where our Mile High Report staff landed on the top five for offensive line:

Scotty Payne: Tom Nalen was the leader of Mike Shanahan’s offensive line, Ryan Clady was a top LT on a Hall of Fame career before injury and Stink was a key member of the Broncos Super Bowl winning OL back in the 90s. I included Bolles and Meinerz since both will be on this list once their successful careers are over with.

Chris Hart: This position group was one of the toughest to come up with a top five. Denver has an incredible history of top-tier offensive lineman. There are several players I left off who were certainly deserving. I posted Tom Nalen as my top guy because he was a stalwart at the pivot for many years for the franchise. We all know what Gary Zimmerman and Mark Schlereth provided on the field and they are both Super Bowl champions. The last two spots go to two recent Broncos, left tackles Garret Bolles and Ryan Clady. Bolles, a decade into his career, continues to play at a high level and Clady was a fantastic blindside protector whose career ended earlier than it should due to injury.

Ian St. Clair: For the first time in Elway’s career, he had a blind-side protector. And Zimmerman is one of the best to ever do it. Same for Nalen, who should be in the HOF. Clady was special. Bishop was the first Broncos offensive lineman in franchise history to get a Pro Bowl invite and provided one of the best in-game quotes ever when he said in Denver’s endzone at old Cleveland Stadium before hiking the ball at the 2-yard line in what would become The Drive, “We got ‘em right right where want ‘em.” And Schlereth helped lock down the left side of the line that was one of the best in league history.

Sadaraine: The top 3 are largely indisputable, other than maybe swapping Schlereth and Zimmerman. Ken Lanier started 178 consecutive games, which is nuts for an OT, and appeared in 3 Super Bowls. Garret Bolles has crafted himself into an all-time great at tackle and may move up the list.

Ross Allen: The Hall-of-Famer Gary Zimmerman was everything you could ever ask for in a left tackle and was a huge reason why John Elway and that 1997 team was so dominant. Schlereth also gets his credit as he was a massive contributor to Denver’s Super Bowl successes. There’s a strong case for Tom Nalen deserving a spot in the Hall of Fame too. And for the past two years I’ve become a huge spouter of Bolles being destined for the Ring of Fame. He’s an incredible talent as has been the cornerstone of this team for a while now. I just hope he gets his Super Bowl.

Joe Mahoney: Top 3 are a no-brainer. Bolles will finish his career with more starts on the OL than any other Bronco. The man he will pass is Ken Lanier. Since stats from Lanier’s era don’t exist we only have starts to go off, but Lanier was an iron man. He started 167 NFL games and 165 were for the Broncos.

There is a bit of variation here, but a general consensus of who should be in the Top 5. I loved the throwback to Keith Bishop who was a big part of the John Elway fourth quarter magic back in the day.

Who gets into your top five offensive lineman list?