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Council presses building inspectors after senior-housing elevators fail; BC vows increased inspections and fines
Summary
After multiple public commenters described months of elevator outages and unsecured doors at the Camper/Stafford Stevens senior buildings, the citybuilding department said inspectors are en route and pledged more frequent checks, larger fines and quarterly meetings with owners.
Residents from the Camper/Stafford Stevens apartment complex told the Detroit City Council on Feb. 3 that repeated elevator outages, unsecured stairwells and poor maintenance have endangered seniors and tenants.
"It's a senior citizen building and our manager has maybe where people can come into the stairwell, which used to be locked," Kenneth Smith said, asking for greater enforcement of owners' responsibilities at 1410 Washington Boulevard. Sharon Richardson, who said she lives on the 21st floor, described walking up 21 flights after an elevator failure and said "it's a serious problem, and it needs immediate attention." (Rosanna Perkins and others had earlier described neighborhood impacts and related concerns.)
The council pressed building officials for action. Dave Bell, director of Building & Compliance (BC), said inspectors were being dispatched to the site and laid out a multi-point plan to reduce repeat failures. BC will assign property-maintenance inspectors for monthly checks at senior properties, increase elevator inspections to at least four times per year (doubling the previous requirement), and use a tiered enforcement approach that can include fines up to $2,000 and referrals to the law department for stronger legal remedies.
"We do have inspectors in route to that location to look into the complaint of elevators not working," Bell said, adding the department had already forwarded several troubled properties for evaluation and possible consent agreements. He said the mayor has directed the effort and set a goal to bring a minimum of 65 senior buildings into code compliance by August.
Council members linked the enforcement message to past ordinances and to ongoing oversight. "The owners of the building, they are responsible for the security," Council President pro tem said during the public-comment exchange, and Member Mary Waters pointed to a locally adopted compliance ordinance that requires those standards to be met.
What happens next: BC said it will report follow-up results directly to the council and will escalate owners who do not fix hazardous conditions, including forwarding cases to the law department. Council members also asked staff to provide contact numbers and case tracking for residents who report elevators or security failures.
The council did not vote on a new ordinance at the meeting; officials said the immediate response would be enforcement of existing law and increased inspections.
The city provided a hotline for building concerns; Director Bell said residents may also call BC at 628-2451 to report inoperable doors, elevators or unsafe conditions.
