Elevator broken at Brockton apartment complex for 6 weeks. Disabled, elderly residents feel stuck in homes.

Residents at a Brockton, Massachusetts, apartment complex say they have been without an elevator for six weeks and fear it could be longer before it's fixed. They tell WBZ-TV that most of the people living at the complex are either elderly or disabled and are struggling to use the stairs.

The Bixby Apartments on Main Street are managed by Peabody Management. They say the elevator broke on Aug. 20, and that they have been in constant communication with residents saying the timeline for repair was always six to eight weeks due to the need for a custom part. Multiple residents don't believe that timeline.

"I said, 'Hey guys, how are you doing? Can you give me an idea how long this is going to take to get fixed?'" said Martin Santiago Jr., who recently talked to the workers repairing the elevator. "He said about another six to eight weeks. I said oh my God, that means I can't go to the doctors."

Santiago Jr. used to be a bodybuilder when he was younger, but after roughly 16 surgeries across both knees, as well as a shoulder replacement, he struggles just to get out of a chair. He says he routinely sees eight different doctors.

"Look at my hands, these fingers don't straighten, so, when I'm walking down and I have to hold on, I got to use all of my strength," said Santiago, adding that he has only been downstairs twice in the last six weeks because of the elevator. "I see doctors twice a week. I go to physical therapy a few times a week."

He has had to cancel numerous medical appointments since it went down because taking the stairs is too difficult from his third-floor apartment. One of his neighbors also uses the stairs and told WBZ-TV, "If you fall, you're done."

"Even going downstairs with my wife holding me, I take one step at a time and it's difficult," said Santiago Jr., starting to tear up. "I got to the point where I just accepted it, and I pray to God, accepted it, and hoping that I have a good place to go to. I try to be strong."

Despite what residents have heard, Peabody insists repairs remain on schedule, and that it should be fixed in two weeks or less. Peabody says they also offered to put people up in a hotel, but that no one has taken them up on the offer. Santiago Jr. says he was never offered that, but instead was told he could move to a lower floor in another building. He does not want to move out of the handicap accessible apartment he has called home for the last 17 years.