Disabled and elderly tenants at Patriot Suites in northeast Las Vegas have been unable to use the main elevator in Building One at the East Craig Road complex since it went out in early January, affecting residents on the second through fourth floors, especially those who use wheelchairs or walkers. Some residents have paid for temporary lodging while others remain in their units. Tressa Houston, a second-floor resident who uses a wheelchair, said “she hasn't been able to enter her apartment in weeks,” and reported that repair dates provided by management were delayed, according to KTNV.
Patriot Suites is a four-story studio community in Sunrise Manor, located at 5300 E Craig Rd, according to Patriot Suites. Property listings show the complex was built in 2009 and has about 236 units, per Apartments.com.
Patriot Services Group, the Florida-based owner of the building, told KTNV that the elevator outage is due to delays in getting specialized parts from the manufacturer and scheduling with its vendor, saying, “It is a parts-and-scheduling matter with a third-party elevator contractor,” not a funding problem. The company added that on-site staff are staying in regular contact with tenants and providing case-by-case help to residents with mobility issues while they work with the elevator contractor on repairs.
Federal Rules On Accessibility And Repairs
Federal rules require that accessibility features, including elevators where they are needed for access, be kept in working order, and note that long outages or repeated breakdowns that are not handled promptly can run afoul of accessibility law, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s U.S. Department of Justice. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department have also issued guidance stating that housing providers must allow reasonable modifications and respond quickly to accommodation requests from tenants with disabilities, which can apply when an elevator outage blocks a tenant’s access to their home, per HUD/DOJ.
What Tenants Are Doing Now
For now, residents say their options are limited: stay upstairs and wait it out, pay for a room somewhere else, or pack up and leave the complex entirely, which some tenants say they are planning. The ordeal highlights how a single mechanical failure can effectively wall off people with mobility needs in older, budget-friendly apartment buildings.
