Video captured the moment that a blind man plummeted four floors down an empty elevator shaft in a low-income housing residence in Los Angeles, FOX11 reported.
Residents at the Madison Hotel say the incident involving the legally blind man who is expected to survive is indicative of the building’s poor condition, according to FOX11. Video from the accident shows the man fall down the shaft after elevator doors open and a nearby worker rushes to try to catch him. (RELATED: 13-Year-Old Survives After Falling Nearly 100 Feet Into The Grand Canyon)
Blind man falls 4 floors through empty elevator shaft, survives. https://t.co/eotz1LTZGu Click the image to read more:
— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) May 10, 2024
Tammy Davis, a 12-year resident at Madison Hotel, told FOX11 that the hotel is “a little better than living on the street, so, you take what you can get, but it’s not the best conditions…You’ve already got the guy falling down the elevator shaft. I mean, what’s next?”
The AIDS Healthcare Foundations (AHF) owns the Madison as well as many other low-income residences on Skid Row and reportedly has spent over $300 million supporting rent control legislation across California, according to the LA Times.
The Times reported that in Los Angeles “Code Enforcement and Public Health complaints at foundation buildings are more than three times higher than those owned by other Skid Row nonprofits.”
“We have roaches, we have bed bugs,” Davis said. “The bathrooms are always not clean. If you say something, sometimes they fix it. Sometimes you get on a waiting list.”
An AHF spokesperson shared a statement with FOX 11 claiming the foundation spent $600,000 renovating the elevator in 2018.
Jonathan M. Eisenberg, an attorney for the AHF told FOX 11, “The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets parroting the Times’ sloppy journalism repeatedly have blamed AHF for The Madison’s problems, especially its elevator outages. The real story should be the efforts AHF makes to keep the elevator running and to fix it as quick as possible when it goes out.”
Madison resident Davis invited FOX 11 staff to visit Thursday afternoon, but a reporter crew was barred from entering the building, the outlet reported.
“Somebody has to do something,” Davis said. “My main goal is to get the place fixed up.”