CROMWELL — Robert Schufer says he has not been out of his condominium unit for six months.

He cannot attend family functions or visit in person with his brother and sister, who communicate with him by telephone, and he sees his doctors via telehealth visits, according to Schufer and his daughter, Margaret Schufer, who lives with him and her almost 3-year-old daughter in the condo.

It sounds like the life someone might have led in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, but it actually is because the elevator in their Cromwell Gardens condominium building has not worked for half a year.

Robert Schufer, 71, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The last time he tried to walk down the stairs from his third-floor unit — before the elevator outage, Schufer said — he went into "afib." That is short for atrial fibrillation, an abnormally rapid beating of the heart's upper chambers that can lead to blood clots, strokes and heart failure, according to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website.

Additionally, Schufer said his brother and sister have physical problems of their own that prevent them from visiting him.

The malfunctioning elevator is 52 years old, said Douglas Dillon, property manager for the building, who works for Palmer Property Management of Hamden.

Some 15 years ago, the condominium association's board received a price quote for an update of the elevator but could not afford the job, Dillon said.

More recently, he said, elevator parts started to fail one after another. He estimated that $50,000 has been spent on replacement parts.

The work has included installation of a new motor, which Dillon said has yet to work because the elevator's old power supply was inadequate for it.

He said parts are being upgraded and that the elevator will be working by the end of the year.

But he does not promise that will be the end of the elevator problem for the Cromwell Hills Drive condo complex.

Dillon said both the broken elevator in the complex's front building and the elevator in the rear building, which still is working, will need upgrades expected to cost about $250,000 each.

Meanwhile, Dillon said, management company employees are doing what they can to help residents, by bringing packages that delivery people leave by the front door up to third-floor residents.

Residents say there have been past promises to have the elevator fixed — by Halloween, then Thanksgiving — that have not been fulfilled.

And Schufer was far from the only resident who described hardships.

Randall Hall, another third-floor resident in the front condo building who also has COPD and breathes with the aid of an oxygen tank, said he goes out only for medical and dental appointments. He said he has fallen a couple of times, and his wife caught him.

His wife, Virginia Hall, has physical problems of her own, having had two knee replacements, a hip replacement and suffering from arthritis, according to the couple.

Virginia Hall described the difficulty of bringing groceries into their condo, saying "usually by the grace of God" someone helps her. At times it is a good Samaritan, Virginia Hall said, and at other times she pays people to help or gets assistance from her grandson.

She described climbing the stairs to the third floor with her husband and having to stop at each landing because he gets out of breath.

Virginia Hall said she had a fall of her own two weeks ago, landing on the same hip that had been replaced. In retrospect, she thinks she should have gone to the hospital. But instead, she said, she "shed a few tears" and prayed to God.

Even people who are not handicapped described difficulties due to the broken elevator.

"It's very challenging, especially going grocery shopping," said Margaret Schufer, 33. "I already broke multiple granny carts going up and down the stairs."

Some first-floor residents also said the lack of a working elevator is causing hardships, including difficulty carrying laundry to machines on higher floors or getting to cars parked in the basement garage.