‘A real slap in the face': Elevator outages in Navy Yard high-rise frustrate residents

Residents of a 14-story high-rise in Washington, D.C., are raising concerns about their lack of consistent elevator access. The three elevators at the Onyx on First apartments in Navy Yard have been mostly out of service since Thursday, residents say.

It's more than just an inconvenience — it's a major safety and accessibility matter, they told News4.

Three elevators, all with "Out of Order" signs: They're some of the first things you notice when you walk inside the building.

“It’s not fair,” Carolette Sweatt, who lives in the building, said. “It’s not realistic. It’s a real slap in the face."

“We have to really think about every time we leave: Is it worth it?” resident Teagan Mountcastle said.

“I ain’t got no choice,” another resident, Ousmane Ba, said. “I have to take my time. Take the steps until I get to the 10th floor.”

News4 reached out to Greystar, the property management company for the building. A member of their communications team referred our request for comment to the owner of the building, who told us that repairs are underway, and elevators are running four hours each day.

"Last week, a sprinkler head was activated in a resident’s apartment, which unfortunately resulted in the shutdown of all three elevators in the building," the company said. "The elevator service provider has been manually operating one elevator for four hours each day, with plans to extend this operation until the repairs are made. All the stairwells remain fully accessible for use during this period. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate patience as we work to restore full service."

But for some residents, such as Sweatt, one elevator working for four hours per day is not nearly enough time, especially for residents who are elderly or disabled.

"It's sort of like, sorta how dare you dictate to us, the tenants, how we should go through our days?” Sweatt said. “It’s not our fault.”

The residents we spoke with say they still haven't received a timeline for when the issues could be resolved. In the meantime, some residents are banding together to help those most in need.

“We’re lucky enough where we can kind of just go up and down, and be able to do it,” said resident Mark McNamara. “But a lot of people, they can’t. There’s people on the Facebook group that are reaching out to help other people get up and down the stairs.”

And others say these issues are changing their long-term plans for living there.

“Me, I don’t know what I'm going to do, but I know I'm not going to stay here,” Ba said. “I’m going to move. It’s not good.”

News4 reached out to the elevator contractor for comment on the situation, but we have yet to hear back.

We also checked in with D.C. Fire and EMS and with D.C. police to see if they had responded to any emergency calls at the apartment complex related to the elevator issues. A spokesperson with D.C. Fire said he was looking into whether they'd gotten any calls specifically about the elevator problems but was not aware of any. He did say a box alarm reported smoke at the building Monday morning, but no smoke was found.