Landlord of Montrose senior apartments with no elevator for 2 weeks given court date extension
The owner of a Montrose senior apartment building where residents were stranded for two weeks without a functioning elevator will have his day in court — but not yet.
Elias Shokrian, owner of the Honolulu Manor Senior Apartments, was given a two-week extension to submit his plea to a misdemeanor charge brought by the city of Glendale over the elevator issue.
Shokrian and a partnership that controls the building were scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday in the Glendale Courthouse, according to Assistant City Atty. Yvette Neukian.
Shokrian told the judge, through representatives from his management company called Montrose LP, that he needed more time to find an attorney, according to Glendale city spokesman Dan Bell.
On May 23, the only functioning elevator at the senior apartment building at 2500 Honolulu Ave. stopped working.
Another elevator in the building broke in October and was never fixed.
“It’s still jumpy,” said the building manager named Marie, who did not want to give her last name, on Friday.
About 13 days after breaking, the elevator was repaired, but still has issues.
It jerks and sometimes misses its intended floor, according to some residents.
An inspector from the city came on Friday and noted that it still needed work, the property manager said.
The repairman was due back again sometime later on Friday, she added.
During the time the second elevator was down, some residents, such as Michelle Head, 72, were stranded in their apartments, unable to make doctors’ appointments or celebrate the Memorial Day holiday.
A wheelchair-bound resident who left before the second elevator broke had to call the fire department to be carried up to her apartment when she returned and it was nonfunctioning, according to the property manager.
About 85 residents aged 65 and older live in the building.
Head said she’d like to see the other elevator, which has been broken since this past fall, repaired as a backup to avoid another crisis.
“In the interim, we’re struggling,” Head said.
To come into compliance with Glendale’s building and safety code, Shokrian will need to repair the other elevator, said Neukian, who is prosecuting the case against Shokrian and Montrose LP.
The property manager was told that the second elevator would be fixed, but she said she hasn’t been given a date for the repair.
In April, monthly rents at the senior apartment building were raised by $100, to $1,300, according to Analily Park, the daughter of 82-year-old-resident Zoila Rojas.
“[An elevator is] not a gratuity service,” Park said. “They’re paying for it.”
On Saturday, residents are planning to meet with an attorney to discuss their legal options, Head said.