Toronto Mayor John Torrey has vowed to address safety concerns at a public housing estate on the west end of the city after a bedroom ceiling recently collapsed, seriously injuring a tenant.
The incident happened on May 27 in Swansea Mews, a residential building with 154 units in Toronto, west of High Park near Windermere Avenue and Queensway.
Initially, the residents of block H, where the ceiling fell, were relocated.
The social housing provider, in an update on May 27, published on its website, said it also offers temporary accommodation to other tenants who “feel insecure about their home.”
A TCHC spokesman told CP24 today that they have since decided to temporarily relocate all of the complex’s 113 inhabited households (41 units were already vacant due to previous repairs) as a “precautionary measure”. This process is ongoing.
“If we leave people there, we don’t know,” Robin Smith said, adding that all 400 residents were told last week that they would have to leave their units for installation work and engineering tests to be conducted throughout the complex. .
Smith said the problems at Swansea Mews are probably part of a larger problem that dates back to when it was first built in the 1970s. He said this was something they said was “beyond the scope of regular inspections”.
Speaking to reporters Monday morning, Torrey said he was meeting with Toronto Community Housing CEO Jag Sharma this afternoon and that the renovation of Swansea Mews would be “first on the list.”
He called the recent situation in Swansea Muse “very worrying” and said the city would investigate.
Torrey also said plans were already “well made” to revive this aging complex with the means to make it happen. He said it could take the form of renovating or completely replacing the buildings in the complex.
“But most importantly, we will strive to continue either by replacing these buildings, which sometimes turns out to be a better thing for all concerned, including taxpayers, or by renovating them as soon as possible,” he said. .
Parkdale High Park Earl. Gord Perks, whose ride at the western end includes the area where the complex is located, said what happened at Swansea Muse was “incredibly destructive.” He said the city is working with local school councils to ensure that displaced children complete the last few weeks of the year and that tenants meet all their basic needs.
Perks said the request for proposals should be issued early next year for Swansea Mews, as it has already been identified as in need of “reconstruction”.
“There were big problems in this complex … The tragedy of all this is that we were almost on the finish line,” he said, adding that the city has been struggling for more than 25 years to keep TCHC’s property in good condition as the province download this file to them. Perks said the city council is pushing hard to get financial help from provincial and federal governments for social housing, but so far only federal authorities have stepped up.
TCHC currently has about $ 1.6 billion in outstanding repairs. The federal government has previously pledged $ 1.34 billion in funding to help the city tackle the backlog of repairs by 2028.
TCHC says it will provide an official update on the situation at Swansea Mews later today.
“The safety of tenants is our top priority and we will take all possible precautions to protect them. “TCHC staff is on site in the community to communicate directly with those affected, and we will continue to provide information when it becomes available,” the agency said on May 27.
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