Fresno disabled veteran faces eviction alongside broken apartment elevators

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — Elderly and disabled neighbors at “The Link at Blackstone” are still struggling to get in and out of their homes after the building’s elevators stopped working months ago, leaving some tenants effectively trapped upstairs.

When tenants first learned the elevators were broken they received notices that suggested progress, with one notice saying an elevator was fixed, only for another notice days later say it was out of order again.

One tenant, Marine veteran Jonathan Waltiere, has been living in a hotel for nearly a month because he cannot reach his front door without the elevators.

“I’m on a fixed income, and it definitely cuts into everything,” Waltiere said.

While management has paid for his hotel stay as maintenance works on the elevators, he said he was shocked when a neighbor told him there was an eviction notice posted on his apartment door Tuesday, Sept. 8.

“They said, ‘There’s something on your door. Do you want me to bring it to you?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m here’. So they did, and I was shocked.” Waltiere said. “I was like, ‘I haven’t lived there since August 14th.’”

The notice was described as a three-day eviction notice.

Waltiere said he received no calls or emails about the notice, despite speaking with managers about the hotel situation almost every day.

He said he now has two more days to pay rent for the last month.

“It made me feel I felt disrespected a little bit,” Waltiere said. “I feel disrespected that they would even put it on my door when they know that I’m not there.”

Waltiere said the disruption has also separated him from his dog, which he sent to live with a friend while he stays in a hotel.

“It drives me crazy when I see people with their dogs, and I just want to go cry, so it’s not good,” he said.

Other tenants have also struggled to navigate the stairs, leaving them stuck inside their apartments.

“We pay our rent, and they don’t answer us when they’re gonna put it back on. And I’m living like this, you know? I stay stuck right here in the apartment,” a disabled neighbor said.

Waltiere said he wants one thing.

“I want to go home,” he said.

Building management said the elevators were broken because of vandalism and that repairs have been delayed while waiting on specialized parts.

In May, the Fresno city attorney’s office said it would make the elevator issue a top priority.

City Attorney Andrew Janz later said the situation was unusual because the property owners had remained in communication with the city throughout the process. Because of that cooperation, the complex had so far avoided progressive fines, which can range from $800 to $1,400.

Janz said if the property owner was not working with the city and did not provide updates, then progressive fines would be issued.

Requests for comment were sent again to the apartment complex management and to the Fresno city attorney’s office, but responses were still pending.

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