By Erin Gourley of 
There are 14 flights of stairs on the way to the top of the Pukehinau Flats. Photo: MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
It is a long way to the top floor of the council's Pukehinau Flats for residents who just want to bring in their groceries.
With the lift out of action since last Wednesday, the steep stairs zigzagging down the side of the council-managed flats are the only option for its tenants.
There are seven storeys of flats and 14 flights of stairs to get to the top floor.
A 77-year-old resident of the Wellington City Council-owned apartments estimated she had made the walk to the top more than ten times over the past week.
Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said it was unlikely to be fixed until early January.
The tenant, who did not want to be named, said the stairs were an "exhausting" climb, especially when carrying groceries.
"It's all right if you're walking, but if you have to carry something it's difficult ... and it's getting harder because I have pulled a muscle in my back."
The stairs are steep and "exhausting" to climb, says one tenant. Photo: MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
She was "dreading" going out for groceries on Wednesday.
Her daughter, who visited for Christmas, had also struggled with the stairs, especially just before Christmas when they had to make three trips in one day to bring up presents and groceries.
What really shocked the resident was the "uncaring, unfeeling" text residents received about the outage last Wednesday.
The text said the lift would be out until further notice, but did not explain the problem or apologise for the inconvenience.
"If you placate people and you're nice about it, most people will say 'well they're doing their best'," the tenant said.
But the communication Pukehinau tenants received from the council when the elevator went out was "rude".
A security guard has been posted at the flats to help tenants, but they can only do so much. Photo: MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
A security guard was posted on site to help with groceries - but they could only help so much, the tenant said.
"What was the one security guard supposed to do, piggyback them up the stairs?"
The security guard was not there on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, when many of the residents were moving around with gifts and food.
Tenants of the flats - many of whom were elderly or disabled, with one resident who was 100 years old - did not receive an apology about the situation until Tuesday, when the lift had been out for six days.
"There was none of that when we called the council on Saturday and got an un-empathetic response," the tenant said.
The lift being out of action was a common problem at the flats. This month had seen multiple outages.
The Pukehinau Flats are managed by the Wellington City Council's community housing trust. Photo: MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
In a statement, council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the council was "really sorry for the inconvenience faced by some residents".
There had been multiple failures of the lift in December, some related to vandalism, he said. The council was investigating how to stop these incidents, including installing swipe card access.
The current lift outage was because the council was waiting on a "crucial piece" of lift equipment, which was not likely to arrive in Wellington until the first week of January.
But the message that "communication is the most important thing", which was repeated during the CHP handover and consultation with affected residents, hadn't applied to this situation, the tenant said.
This story was originally published on Stuff.
