If someone in a Somerville triple decker cannot manage the stairs, two trained staff can bring them down seated in a motorized stair chair and back up afterward. It costs $200 a visit and works on narrow interior flights and the front stoop.

Why are Somerville stairs harder than most?

Most of the city's housing is triple deckers, two families and Victorians built more than a century ago, with no elevators. A top floor unit can mean two interior flights, a tight landing turn, then the front steps. A stairlift rarely works in a rental because the owner has to agree and a curved rail takes weeks. A ramp needs more lot than most Somerville houses have.

What goes wrong when families do it themselves?

• The turn. Two people can manage a straight flight. The landing turn in a triple decker is where people lose their grip.
• The third floor. A parent on the top floor stops going out at all, and appointments pile up.
• The ride will not come up. Ride services wait at the curb. Nobody is assigned to the stairs.
• Discharge day. The hospital is ready, and the family realizes nobody can get them up three flights.
• Winter. Snow and ice on the outside steps turn a hard trip into a dangerous one.

The client stays seated and strapped in. The tracks take the weight, not the staff's backs.

Who does the work?

Always two trained staff. Care Remedy has served seniors and people with disabilities since 2019 and makes about 30,000 transportation trips a year, many of them from the walk ups of Somerville, Cambridge and Boston. The crew moves the person into the chair, straps them in, guides it down each flight, and transfers them into their wheelchair, our van or a family car at the bottom.

What does it cost?

$200 a visit for the crew and the chair. A wheelchair van is $115 each way within five miles, then $2 a mile. Wheelchair rides from Somerville. Medicare does not pay for stair help. What sometimes does. Residents 60 and over can also ask Somerville Cambridge Elder Services what their plan covers.

What should you tell us when you book?

Which floor, how many flights, whether the stairs turn, whether front or back stairs are easier, the person's weight, and manual or power wheelchair. A photo of the stairs from the bottom helps. We will give you the rated capacity on the phone.

We serve Somerville from our Woburn office. Call 781-957-8076.