This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/gooddayberks.
CUMRU TOWNSHIP — For the first time in two years, both elevators are working at a housing complex for low-income older adults in Berks County.
Sencit Towne House Apartments, a 200-unit, 10-floor building, receives $2 million annually in taxpayer-funded subsidies, and houses many residents who are medically fragile and rely on mobility aids to get around.
Spotlight PA reported in August that residents had to live with unreliable elevator service and frequent outages. Some residents were stuck in their apartments and had to get groceries and medications delivered to them by local agencies. Six people were stuck in one of the elevators for over an hour, and a woman fell and broke her arm while trying to go up the stairs to her apartment.
Otis Elevator Company, which was hired to make repairs, completely revamped both elevators, installed new controls, and replaced decades-old mechanical parts.
“Based on our team’s knowledge and their applied experience gained during modernization of the first elevator, they were able to gain efficiencies on the second unit’s modernization,” Cara Shank, Otis’ director of communications, told Spotlight PA.
The first elevator — which had been sealed off by a state order since April 2025 — passed inspection on Aug. 26. The second passed inspection on Oct. 16, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
It’s a welcome change and a relief for residents.
“It’s wonderful. You still have to wait. But hey, not like before when it was lined up, and then you were supposed to take turns,” said Nan Frankl, 78, who’s lived at Sencit for about three years.
Getting to this point took pressure from multiple agencies, including an inquiry from the Berks County District Attorney’s Office.
In March, the Department of Labor and Industry sent a notice threatening to also shut down the second elevator over safety violations.
Three months later the Berks County District Attorney’s Office sent a letter to Sencit’s owner, David Lesser, demanding a plan to fix the elevators and citing the state’s consumer protection law.
On July 14, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which is contracted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to manage the building’s federal subsidies, conducted a Management and Occupancy Review. This audit examines how a residential building is managed and how it serves its tenants. Sencit received a score of “Above Average,” according to a written statement from HUD.
A HUD spokesperson told Spotlight PA on Nov. 3 that it has not issued any warning, notices, or penalties related to Sencit’s elevator problems. Instead, the department monitored the repair and requested regular updates from Property Management, Inc., a Camp Hill company that oversees Sencit as well as more than 360 other properties and $4 billion in assets.
At the end of July, Cumru Township cited Lesser, of Peak XV Realty Capital, for failing to keep at least one elevator operational. On Aug. 17, the Department of Labor and Industry issued another notice of violation to Lesser and Property Management, Inc. for an elevator being past due on its inspection.
“L&I inspectors will not allow faulty elevators to remain in operation, which is why they took enforcement action and issued notices of violation for both elevators,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to Spotlight PA.
By the end of August, Otis completed its modernization work on the first elevator. After it passed a second safety inspection, the elevator was returned to service on Aug. 26.
On Sept. 24, a magisterial district court judge found Lesser guilty of violating the township’s elevator ordinance, court records show. Lesser paid $1,170.99 in fines and court costs.
Neither Lesser nor a representative of his company responded to Spotlight PA’s request for comment.
The district attorney’s office remains involved. District Attorney John Adams said his office receives weekly reports from Sencit and that he is “pleased with the progress.”
Frankl credited the combined pressure for helping get the elevators fixed.
“Everything came on at one time,” Frankl said. “Between HUD, between the township and the residents, everything just kind of came together.”
But the long wait did leave many residents feeling abandoned, like “nobody cared,” Frankl said.
“We were just left here. It’s the feeling you got. You were totally forgotten.”
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