“I feel like I’m being held hostage”

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Karen Field is trapped.

A 55-year-old Oshawa woman sits on her couch in the humid, sunlit apartment – a place she has become quite familiar with as she hasn’t left since the beginning of June.

When the only elevator in her 50 Adelaide Ave. E. apartment building went out of commission for a replacement last month, Field has been stuck on the fourth floor, unable to navigate the stairs.

The evidence of her recent knee replacement exists in the form of a bandage still wrapped around her new joint, resting elevated on a pillow. She also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, a disease that not only attacks her joints, but her lungs as well, MS, fibromyalgia and degenerative disc disease.

“I feel like I’m being held hostage,” she says. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. I really wouldn’t.”

Field says she has no problem getting around with the help of a walker or her electric wheel chair, and prior to the elevator maintenance, would have no problem getting out, visiting friends or doing her groceries. But now, under doctor’s orders, she can’t take the stairs, leaving her no options to get out of her apartment.

The owner of the building, Q Residential, a property conglomerate that owns apartments across the GTA and Quebec, told The Oshawa Express the elevator was decades old and was in much need of replacement as it was starting to cause a hazard to residents when it stopped meeting flush with the floor.

“We made the decision to undertake a complete upgrade modification of this elevator and provided the residents notification of this in March,” explains Cam Murchison, the director of property standards for Q Residential.

Field was unable to attend the tenant meeting as she was out for a medical appointment.

Murchison says Q Residential negotiated a fast-tracked contract with the contractors to complete the elevator replacement in four weeks, instead of the usual six to seven weeks. He also says students were brought in to assist residents navigate the stairs and help with laundry or groceries. Chairs and water bottles were also placed in all of the stairwells.

“Most residents are very pleased with how this has been handled,” Murchison says, adding the fast-tracking was done at “substantial additional cost.”

When asked if consideration to given to any residents who physically were unable to take the stairs, Murchison says these tenants should have turned to family or friends for a possible relocation, or their tenant insurance should have covered any expenses.

However, Field says she has no family to rely on for a place to stay and living on disability, she can’t afford tenant insurance.

Field has also been forced to pay for her groceries to be delivered to her apartment.

“My human rights are being squashed all over,” she says. “I can’t get out, I can’t do anything.”

Although she can’t physically get out, Field has reached out in the only way she can: getting in touch with the Human Rights Legal Support Centre (HRLSC).

The centre helps those with claims of discrimination and has taken on Field’s case, expediting the process due to her medical condition.

The downed elevator has caused Field to miss urgent medical appointments that would provide her with much-needed medication, and has been forced to reschedule an MRI and follow-up appointments with her surgeon for her knee.

“I’m not one to sit down and have people walk all over me,” she says. “I will fight for what’s right and anybody else’s rights.”

According to Jennifer Ramsay, the communications and external relations coordinator at HRLSC, a mediation has been scheduled for Thursday, July 2 to allow for Field and building management to attempt to come to some form of agreement.

Field will be attending the hearing via teleconference from her apartment. If an agreement can not be reached a hearing would be scheduled at a later date.

“I want to be able to get out of here,” Field says of the best possible outcome from the hearing. “I feel like a dog in a kennel.”

Field says she hopes her story will inspire other residents to come forward with their story and to let them know they can do something about their situations.

“I want people to know, first of all, that they don’t have to lay down and let these landlords walk all over you. You have rights,” she says.

Field’s story follows a report earlier this month in The Express that exposed another building at 330 Gibb St. in which the elevator had been down for nearly 15 weeks, with several elderly residents stuck inside.