BOSTON — A disabled American veteran in a wheelchair, both legs gone, spent Wednesday night sleeping outside South Station because the elevator at his Boston Housing Authority apartment in the South End had been broken for nearly 22 hours — and BHA wouldn't give him a hotel.

Per Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, BHA's solution was for him to call the fire department and have firefighters carry him upstairs. He slept on the sidewalk instead.

His name is Steve. Flynn visited him at his Ruth Barkley apartment Thursday morning, posted a photo of the two of them on X, and dropped a formal letter at the offices of Mayor Michelle Wu and BHA Administrator Kenzie Bok. By Flynn's account, Steve couldn't reach his medication, couldn't use his own bathroom, and had no help coming from the agency that's supposed to house him. A neighbor — not BHA — eventually picked him up from South Station the next morning and went and retrieved his medication.

Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn kneeling next to Steve, a disabled veteran in a wheelchair, at his BHA Ruth Barkley apartment in the South End — Councilor Ed Flynn visited Steve at his Ruth Barkley apartment Thursday morning after BHA left him sleeping outside South Station overnight. (Office of Councilor Ed Flynn / X)

The same building. The same fine. The same agency.

Ruth Barkley isn't a new problem for BHA. The Massachusetts Architectural Access Board — the state body that enforces accessibility for people with disabilities — already fined the Boston Housing Authority $363,000 over elevator failures at the same Ruth Barkley Apartments. Then it knocked the penalty down to one percent. $3,630. Pocket change for an agency with a billion-dollar budget, and apparently not enough motivation to keep the elevators running.

Flynn's letter to Wu and Bok says it plainly: BHA and its contractors "must be held fully accountable for every elevator failure," and complaints "must be promptly reported to the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board." It's a request Flynn shouldn't need to make if anyone in city government were already doing the job.

For two years, Flynn has chaired City Council hearings where seniors and disabled residents in BHA buildings have testified — in his words — to "being unable to make appointments, pick up medication, or make it to their unit to use the restroom." Same complaints. Same elevators. Same agency. Different night.

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Billions for hotels — for everyone but him

Massachusetts didn't have a budget problem on Wednesday night. The state has spent more than $2 billion housing migrant families in hotels and emergency shelters under its right-to-shelter law — $940 million in fiscal year 2025, and $894 million the year before. The Healey administration funds HomeBASE, a relocation program for migrant families, at over $57 million for 2026, covering up to two years of rent subsidies, broker's fees, security deposits, $2,500 for furniture, and even landlord bonuses. One Haitian migrant who arrived in 2021 was handed $30,000 through the program, burned through it in ten months, and then went to the Boston Globe to complain it wasn't enough.

A disabled American veteran whose elevator went out for one day couldn't get a single hotel voucher.

This isn't even the first time the contrast has played out at South Station. In December 2025, Carvell Curry, a 62-year-old homeless American, froze to death on the sidewalk outside the same transit hub while the state's migrant-hotel machine kept running. The City Council, Flynn included, passed a non-binding resolution. Five months later, BHA put another American on the same sidewalk. The only difference this time is that the weather didn't kill him.

Letter from Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn to Mayor Michelle Wu and BHA Administrator Kenzie Bok, dated May 28, 2026, demanding accountability for elevator failures at the BHA Ruth Barkley Apartments — Flynn's May 28, 2026 letter to Mayor Wu and BHA Administrator Kenzie Bok, copied to the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board. (Office of Councilor Ed Flynn / X)

'This is a disgrace'

Within an hour, the story had landed in the 2026 governor's race. Brian Shortsleeve, the Republican former MBTA chief now challenging Governor Maura Healey, quote-tweeted Flynn's letter with a verdict on the administration's priorities.

"This is a disgrace," Shortsleeve wrote, before laying out a list: "Maura Healey and Michelle Wu are giving free needles to drug addicts, illegal immigrants apartments, and violent criminals parole but they can't prioritize a veteran who's given everything to this country?" He closed: "When I'm governor, we're getting our priorities…"

Flynn's ask

Flynn is renewing his call for a Boston Housing Authority Elevator Safety Commission — to be composed of representatives from the BHA Task Force, BHA leadership, the Boston Fire Department, Inspectional Services, the Disabilities Commission, a member of the City Council, and someone from the elevator maintenance industry. He's offered to chair it himself.

"We can no longer ignore these dangerous public safety issues across the City of Boston," Flynn wrote.

Wu's office had not responded as of publication. Neither had BHA.

ABANDONED on the concrete: Disabled American veteran with no legs slept outside South Station after Boston Housing Authority refused him a hotel — and told him to call the fire department to carry him upstairs

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