Silke Evans just celebrated her 80th birthday. She loves being active. But for three weeks, she hasn't been able to leave her apartment — not because she's ill, not because of the weather, but because the elevator at her Boston apartment building is broken and hasn't been fixed.

"I feel imprisoned. That's it," Silke said. "I feel like I'm in prison."

Silke lives on an upper floor at Villa Michelangelo Apartments in Boston's North End. More than 30 of her neighbors are in the same situation. For people who can't safely use the stairs, a broken elevator isn't an inconvenience — it's a trap.

Metro Management, which runs the building, says it could take four to five weeks just to get the parts, and another four to five weeks to install them. That's potentially ten more weeks that Silke and her neighbors would be stuck inside.

"The depression and the physical deterioration has accelerated, and that is frightening," said Silke's daughter, Katharine Clark.

A stairlift is being installed as a temporary patch, but it doesn't solve the problem. These residents deserve a fully functioning elevator — and they deserve it urgently, not on a months-long timeline that treats their confinement as acceptable.

No one should feel like a prisoner in their own home. Sign this petition to demand Metro Management repair the elevator at Villa Michelangelo Apartments immediately and give residents a real plan with a real deadline.