Broken elevator leaves disabled woman stuck in apartment INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An elevator inside the Turtle Creek Apartments remains unrepaired a month after it broke. People living with a disability inside say the problem is taking a toll on their health. It’s been 30 days since one wh eelchair-bound woman living inside the complex says she’s left her unit because of the elevator. I-Team 8 first spoke to her over a week ago and confirmed the Marion County Health Department issued an emergency violation to the complex because of the issue. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, says the apartment again reached out to her after the I-Team 8 story aired. She said the complex originally said it would take two weeks to fix the elevator, due to certain parts needing to be ordered to repair the elevator. The complex now tells her there’s been a delay ordering the parts and they cannot offer an exact day it will be fixed. She says management offered to pay for to stay at a hotel or be released from her lease. The apartment’s parent company confirmed to News 8 that they paid for an extended stay hotel and looked into installing a chair lift. “Turtle Creek’s management is trying to get this elevator fixed as quickly as possible,” the parent company told News 8. “We have been working with the supplier to get the part required for the fix, but there is an apparent delay in the supply chain. We have even offered to pay extra to expedite the part, but without success. Turtle Creek also has explored installing a mechanical chair lift.  For a variety of reasons, three vendors turned the project down, namely related to compliance and fire safety concerns. While we wait for the repair to be made, we are working with impacted residents on how we can best support them. While we are in contact with our residents, we do encourage those residents who have not contacted us to reach out so we can address their specific situation. Finally, we are keeping the City up to date on the situation.”  The woman says she chose to continue living inside her apartment and should not be forced to leave because of the elevator issue. “If the stairwell was out and no one could get down the stairs, it’s not like they would tell all the able-bodied people to be patient,” the woman said. “They would make sure that people could get down the stairs. But, because I have disabilities, I don’t fit into the way that society is and that’s not fair.” She’s not the only one struggling. After publishing the first story, several people living at the apartment reached out to I-Team 8’s Kyla Russell asking for help with the same issue. “This is a life or death concern for some of us,” Turtle Creek Apartments resident Riley Hendley Calhoun-Sikes said. Calhoun-Sikes has lived with a disability for nearly 15 years. For many of those, they could not walk. Though they’ve slowly gained enough strength to walk each day, every step is exhausting. “I have limited ability and energy,” Calhoun-Sikes said. Every time they leave the third floor since the elevator has been broken, it only makes their health worse. “140 steps does not seem like a lot to the average person, but those are steps that are valuable to me and I have to count,” they said. “It’s significantly harmed my physical self.” In the month since the elevator broke down, Calhoun-Sikes says they’ve lost significant weight because of the exercise and stress caused by the situation. They say they aren’t the only person living with a disability inside the apartment who is struggling. “A lot of us who are here would probably want a different living situation,” Calhoun-Sikes said. “We probably would want to have been able to sign a lease somewhere else if we could afford it, but this is what we can afford and even if it is inaccessible, and it puts us on the third story and it doesn’t have elevators that work, it’s better than the alternative we can’t afford or the streets.” The apartment’s parent company told News 8 they notified the fire department about the issue. Calhoun-Sikes says they’ve had little communication with tenants about the problem. “I don’t want my passion to be misread as aggression,” Calhoun-Sikes said. “I don’t want my pain to be misread as anger, but it is incredibly frustrating to already be a mistreated and struggling minority group as disabled individuals who are on fixed and very low income…it’s incredibly disheartening that even in our own living space that should be safe, that should be welcoming, that should be comfortable, we can’t even relax in and we can’t even access.” The apartment urges anyone struggling to reach out to them directly. ...read more read less