In late July, 2017, the rear of the Kenmore Hall lobby was modified so that tenants couldn’t use it - a “temporary” shed was erected, allegedly to accommodate tools and equipment needed for modifications to the elevators. According to a memo that was posted on bulletin boards throughout the building at the time, the shed was only going to be up for a week.

As of April 18, 2018, the shed is still blocking off the rear of the lobby, and work on only ONE of the elevators has been completed.

Work is currently underway on a second elevator. Elevator #1 (the one that work has been completed on) is not accessible to tenants; only staff is allowed to use it. This means that - in a building with over 320 units and tenants - only two elevators are available for tenant use. On many days, during business hours, tenants have to make due with just ONE elevator. At other times, the two working elevators often “hang” on one floor or another midway up the building while some inconsiderate tenants hold the doors while they chat with neighbors, or worse yet, put objects like bicycles or bags in the doorway of the elevator to hold the elevator while they purchase loosie cigarettes or drugs from their neighbors.

Obviously, this creates an intolerable situation for other tenants who need access to the elevators. It’s impossible to anticipate how long tenants will have to wait to be able to get to the lobby or the floors they live on. It’s frustrating to be delayed getting to appointments because of this. It becomes a very serious issue if a tenant has called an ambulance due to serious illness and the EMS workers cannot get to them in a timely manner. In addition, the building has many disabled tenants who use wheelchairs; they clearly do not have the option of using the stairs, but when only one elevator is working, this often translates into additional delays for many while the wheelchair user gets to their destination and frees up the elevator (only one or two slim people can get on while the elevator is occupied by a wheelchair user). This is not meant to be a criticism of anyone using a wheelchair, by the way: the elevators are very small.

H.S.I. staff and management hasn’t seen fit to let tenants know how long the situation with the elevators is going to continue. And tenants are expected to continue putting up with paying full rent even though building services have been reduced for an indefinite period of time. Anyone else see a problem here?