One of two elevators at Barham House has been out of service for nearly a year, according to a memo posted outside the defunct lift on Sept. 24, 2024.
That was one of the reasons more than 60 tenants at the 100-unit affordable senior rental housing apartment on 951 Main Street signed a letter dated Aug. 28 to management and owners with written notice of building complaints.
Maria Rodriguez, a tenant of about eight years who was a leading signer of the letter, told the Peekskill Herald that despite the 2024 memo posted by building management, the elevator has been broken since April 2024. That claim was denied by building management.
Other complaints include people allegedly sleeping in hallways or stairwells, no working phone number for emergency or immediate management communication, bathrooms being inaccessible in certain areas, poor pest control, and lack of air conditioning in common areas.
Sonia Baculima, the daughter of a tenant, expressed her concerns over the elevator situation, which at times may result in tenants having to take the stairs if the one functioning elevator is temporarily out of service.
“Some people live on the seventh floor,” Baculima said. “Imagine if somebody has a heart attack or something and they need [assistance]. It’s almost one year. It’s only one elevator working.”
An explanation for the delay of the elevator’s repair was given by Cindy Mauro, director of operations at community housing management, during a Tuesday, Sept. 9, meeting held at the Barham House community room in the wake of the tenants’ letter.
Participating in the meeting were Mauro, Property Manager Darine Martinez, Resident Superintendent John Savage, Councilman Ramon Fernandez, City Manager Matthew Alexander. The Herald was also on site as an observer. The meeting’s intention was to explain how the building was maintained. Although the meeting was not intended for tenants, management welcomed questions from several listening in.
After an issue with the Stanley elevator in September, Mauro said a third-party elevator company was no longer able to get parts due to Stanley going out of business. As a result, a modernization project was required that entails taking an elevator out of service and replacing everything with new parts.
The modernization project, issued in a permit in November, was delayed due to the vendor awaiting delivery of essential parts, according to a June 12, 2025, memo. Mauro said the completion date to have the brand new elevator is targeted for the fall.
“I want it done within the next couple of months,” Mauro said. “It’s materials. It’s getting things in here. It’s out of our hands, that’s the problem. And it’s out of the hands of the elevator company, because they’re trying to order their stuff in their backlog.”
Councilman Fernandez suggested management have an emergency plan in place in the event both elevators are out of service permanently.
Mauro said the company’s response time when the working elevator temporarily goes down has been within an hour. Superintendent Savage said the working elevator has not gone out of service for about a month or two.
The company servicing the elevator is Solid Service Elevator Corp., whose president is listed as Frank Mauro. At this writing, Cindy Mauro did not respond whether she and Frank Mauro are related.
Management Responds to Other Tenant Claims
Director of Operations Mauro said she was taken aback by how the residents’ letter claimed the building was kept “filthy.”
Mauro shared that Barham House scored a 99 out of 100 on an inspection by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on March 26. That inspection examined health issues, fire safety issues, and cleanliness.
That same report listed the severity of the inoperable elevator as “moderate.” Deficiencies cited in the report included evidence of cockroaches in two units, a “buddy alarm” pull cord being greater than six inches off the floor in one unit, and a smoke alarm not producing sound in one unit.
Mauro said that the apartment has mandatory exterminating every month, with tenants required to let exterminators enter their units or face a violation of lease.
“It’s teamwork as well,” Mauro said. “You can go into apartments and you can have people that are hoarders that don’t keep their apartment the way it should be kept. They keep food on the counters. They don’t wash their pots. They keep the oil on top of the stove. We can only do so much without people helping us to do it together.” She added they previously had such a tenant, and they had to exterminate on a weekly basis due to a yearlong eviction process.
Mauro also responded to complaints regarding people sleeping in the halls who don’t live in the building. She said such incidents do not happen often, and that the superintendent will chase those individuals away and warn them not to return. Superintendent Savage referenced such an occasion.
“A tenant brought it to my attention, and I chased him out of the building,” Savage said. “I did tell him that he’s trespassing [and] if I see him again, I’ll call the cops. These guys, they come to ring random doorbells and people buzz them in.”
Mauro added that management has passed out memos regarding not buzzing in strangers or opening the front doors to strangers walking behind. The memos are put under tenant doors and posted in common areas in English.
Another issue addressed was communication. Tenants reported in their letter that there is no one to answer the phone in the management office and that calls are forwarded to a fax machine with no way to leave a message.
Mauro said as far as she knew, the phone rang directly to the superintendent’s apartment, noting she would look into the issue. Tenants are also encouraged to knock on the door of the super, who lives downstairs. However, she said tenants also have to prioritize what a true emergency is.
“You can’t flush your toilet, your pipe breaks, that’s when people should be contacting a super,” Mauro said. “Other than that, it’s really not fair to go down and knock on somebody’s door and say, ‘My left burner isn’t lighting on my stove.’ That really can wait until morning.”
Tenants are encouraged to write work orders. If they cannot speak English, Property Manager Martinez, who is present two days a week and speaks Spanish, can translate and write it for them. It was also suggested that tenants form a tenants association and have floor wardens.
Mauro said another issue was that tenants were used to living with the previous super, who spoke Spanish. According to Mauro, when Savage became the new super about two years ago, Spanish-speaking tenants held a meeting and wrote a letter to management demanding they fire Savage due to his not speaking Spanish.
City Issues: Sidewalks, Garages, ‘Political Theater’
Several issues raised in the letter were city issues rather than building problems. Residents complained that the sidewalk in front of the building has no run-off when it rains and frequently floods. In addition, residents said the city needs to regularly clean Nelson Avenue Garage, which is connected to Barham House, and where Superintendent Savage estimated most mice entered from.
City Manager Alexander said the city has been focusing on garages, having increased security at the garage and making multiple arrests in the past couple weeks. At the Sept. 8 council meeting, he said the Building Department was scheduled to go to Barham House on Friday, Sept. 12, for a fire inspection.
Councilman Fernandez raised the concerns of the tenants’ Aug. 28 letter at the Sept. 2 city council meeting. Prior to that, he said he met with tenants, who had hoped to raise their concerns at the Aug. 18 council meeting for seniors, but who were unable to sit through the nearly five-hour meeting.
In a statement, Mayor Vivian McKenzie told the Herald that addressing community concerns requires prompt action, coordination with the city manager, and a focus on finding practical solutions rather than engaging in “political theater.” (Both Fernandez and McKenzie are running for mayor in the upcoming November election.)
“Instead of immediately reporting these issues to the city manager so help could arrive without delay, [Fernandez] held onto them to showcase at a council meeting, turning residents’ struggles into a campaign prop,” McKenzie said. “This kind of delay undermines trust and prolongs hardship.”
Fernandez told the Herald he agreed to wait for the tenants to sign and send their letter to management before informing the city manager and council of the issue at the Sept. 2 council meeting.
“Unfortunately in this season, everything that you try to do for the benefit of the community, they’re going to try to criticize. It doesn’t matter,” Fernandez said. “And the role as a councilperson doesn’t stop. You have to keep trying to resolve the problem, and I think that was the right thing.”
Management Announces Resolution to Several Concerns
In a Sept. 10 email to the Herald, Alexander, and Fernandez, Mauro described resolutions for two concerns that residents shared, including not having access to the basement bathrooms.
Tenants wrote in their letter that the two bathrooms at the bottom floor by the laundry room were reserved exclusively for Sun River Health, which has a health center in the building.
Starting next week, the bathrooms will be open to tenants during the same hours as the laundry room — 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. — per Mauro.
Additionally, Mauro said they will be implementing memos in both English and Spanish to better serve their tenants.
“Maintaining a clean, safe living environment for our senior residents remains our highest priority,” Mauro said. “And we are grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate that commitment to the city’s leadership.”
Tenant Rodriguez, who spearheaded with a fellow tenant the letter to management, shared her support of the resolution for the bathrooms.
“I think it’s good news,” Rodriguez told the Herald. “It’s a new start for us. I’m very happy because the meeting was successful. The manager, Cindy, was able to answer any questions that I had. She talked about [improvements], good things in this building. And I’m so happy.”
Rodriguez added that she was interested in forming a tenants’ association for the building and that she hopes the broken elevator will be fixed soon because it is a “major concern” for tenants.
