50 families left without a lift for months at Żejtun public housing

Some 50 families, including elderly residents, have been left without a functioning lift since March due to ongoing works in two government apartment blocks.
The groundfloor communal areas of the four-storey blocks in Żejtun have also been turned into a building site, making it difficult for people to access their homes.
There are no front doors on the buildings, allowing rain and vermin to get in, and stone rubble, ladders, pipes and buckets litter the corridors.
Each block houses 25 families.
An 81-year-old cancer patient, who lives on the third floor, says she has been struggling to get out and into her home because of the situation.
“It’s especially difficult when I have to carry my shopping,” she said.
The lifts were removed in March and, according to a spokesperson for the ministry of housing, will be installed “by end of this year”.
The two buildings have been set for an EU-funded facelift, according to a notice on the Binja Minzel and Binja San Martin blocks, with lift shafts to be expanded and new lifts and apertures installed.

Residents who spoke to Times of Malta in both blocks, which contain 25 apartments each, said three people had already been hurt by tripping...