Tenants in Montreal North are growing impatient with their landlord because the only elevator in their 91-unit building has been unusable for a month, making life difficult for several people with limited mobility.
“This is an emergency. I’m walking with a cane, so go down, I can’t,” says Jeannette Bouchard, who lives on the fifth floor of the building on Avenue Gervais.
The life of the 74-year-old woman with two herniated discs and her neighbors has been an ordeal for a month.
Photo Laurent Lavoie
Jeanette Bouchard, 74, is one of those North Montreal renters who gets impatient with her landlord.
At the beginning of December, a tenant violently attacked the elevator door, so it had to be replaced.
Since then, all occupants of the six-story building, built in 1975, have paid the price for the vandalism.
Many people with limited mobility have to do their shopping tediously and climb several flights of stairs.
“It’s difficult, I have to admit, I want to cry. It couldn’t go on like this, said Carole, 63, who was dependent on the help of a neighbor to climb the stairs. I’m locked at home.”
Complicated procedures
The inaccessibility of the elevator also complicates the work of first responders.
Paramedics have been called to the building on Avenue Gervais at least twice in the past two weeks.
They had to turn to the stairs to drop a 24-year-old woman on a stretcher.
“She was screaming in pain. She vomited, she had trouble breathing. She’s still in the hospital,” says her father, who preferred not to identify himself.
The Montreal-North district assessed the situation as “worrying” and told the Journal that inspectors would be dispatched to the scene “as soon as possible”.
“We’ll notify the property manager […] if corrections need to be made’ was added.
replacement is imminent
HS Properties, which manages this building, claims to have done everything in their power to get a new elevator door quickly.
She says she was able to find a company that could make the transition in three to four weeks, which is less than what another company was offering.
Photo Laurent Lavoie
In this note, the building managers refuse to accept blame for the breach.
James Miller, a representative for HS Properties, said he was confident the repairs would be completed by the end of last week.
On Monday, however, the change had still not taken place, a local resident told us.
“It’s an elevator that was modernized three or four years ago, all the equipment is new. It is truly unfortunate that there was an incident of vandalism,” said Mr. Miller.
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