Swansea Mews residents frustrated after being forced to evacuate buildings deemed unsafe

Hundreds of residents will be forced to leave their homes in a west-end community housing complex after structural engineers found concrete ceilings in the units are at risk of collapsing.

Toronto’s Chief Building Official (CBO) has issued an order requiring all remaining tenants of Swansea Mews, a Toronto Community Housing Corp. (TCHC) complex, to leave for an extended period.

The evacuation comes after one person was seriously injured when the concrete ceiling in their unit in “Block H” collapsed and struck them on May 27.

An initial report on the incident by TCHC found some defects date back to the construction of Swansea Mews, which routine inspections and tenants could not have detected in Block H were offered temporary accommodation.

TCHC then hired third-party structural engineers. They found two more concrete panels in the building similar to the one that fell, and the risk of another falling “suddenly and without warning” was more significant than initially thought.

Based on the report, the CBO decided that the buildings in Swansea Mews are not currently safe for occupancy.

As a result, the 78 remaining households still living in Swansea Mews will be forced to leave their homes. Thirty-six units have already been evacuated, and the tenants have been put out in Humber College dormitories or hotels.

TCHC president Jag Sharma said they have also signed an agreement with George Brown and Toronto Metropolitan University. TCHC is also in talks with York University.

There are 154 townhouse units in the complex, but some are currently unoccupied.

TCHC said they are “continuing to work with third-party organizations to provide these households with a full range of supports while they are out of the community.”

They also assured residents that the order did not terminate their tenancy in the complex.

Swansea Mews tenants are now speaking out, saying there has been almost no communication from TCHC.

“The community is terrified. They feel displaced. They’re angry. They don’t trust the process,” said Marcell Wilson, an advocate for some of the tenant. “I’ve been witnessing some of the process. And I mean, it’s horrible. It’s horrific. The community understands that the place is unsafe. That’s clear. But there has to be a plan set in place where they feel comfortable leaving.”

One resident tells CityNews they came to set up structural support on Friday in her unit without any notice or information released to her. She said she’s been told nothing since.

“Nobody here in the Mews has been informed about anything that’s going on. There are no legal documents being handed out. Nothing from the city. We haven’t had any inspectors come in any of the units. They’re just sending these contractors,” said resident Sylvia Abdul.

Abdul said she wanted to stay because it’s easier for her son to go to school, but ended up taking a room at Humber College last night. “Last night, security started coming, blocking the entrance, the next thing you know we have five TTC buses ready to take people out.”

Another tenant said TCHC told her there wasn’t any accomodation available that would allow her cat. “[They said] We have no accommodation for your cat.” said the tenant. “She’s been with my family for five years. And she loves us … Why would I give up my cat? What is this?”

“They don’t have access to the furniture. They don’t know when they’re coming back. They don’t know when the work is going to get done. So there’s so many unanswered questions and I can understand why they’re terrified,” added Wilson.

TCHC president Jag Sharma was asked about the criticism surrounding communication and said, “We are on site not only today, but we’ve been on site since the incident has happened and we’ve been engaging with tenants and providing them with the best information possible.”

Sharma added he understood the frustration tenants are feeling about being displaced and said the process has been so quick because of the safety risk involved.

“What we can’t necessarily say is how many of these ceilings are at risk and whether they will fall on a tenant or not. That’s what increased the level of risk and why we need the tenant to vacate as quickly as possible,” said Sharma.

He added on top of the accomodations, residents would also be receiving gift cards and per diems for food as some of the locations won’t have access to kitchens. “For any tenants that do have other challenges, whether it be dietary restrictions or anything else, we’re providing mechanisms for them to be able to access not only food, but whether they want to purchase their own as well.”

TCHC also have a town hall scheduled for Tuesday to answer tenants’ questions and concerns.

Mayor John Tory said their priority now is to ensure the safety of the residents. “Our focus is going to be on the safety of the residents who live there and making sure that they are as comfortable and as settled as they can possibly be, admittedly in an extremely disruptive situation for their lives, and I’m sorry about that.”

The City Building Official’s order means tenants will have to remain in temporary accommodations until work is completed to make it safe for tenants to live there again.

This includes providing a report by June 17 outlining “the repair methodology to alleviate the unsafe conditions in the townhouse units.”

“The report shall clearly identify the specific work that must be completed to allow safe re-occupancy of the units and include timeframes for completing the work,” read the Chief Building Official’s order.

TCHC said they couldn’t predict how long the work would take.

“In the event that homes need to remain vacant until TCHC commences its planned refurbishment of Swansea Mews, TCHC plans to relocate households from temporary accommodation into stable, suitable housing that meets their specific needs,” read TCHC’s statement.

Sharma had previously apologized for the disruption the Swansea Mews community has experienced last week.

“We will question every assumption and consider every option until we can get it right so that Swansea Mews residents can live in the comfort and safety they deserve,” he said in a statement.

He acknowledged while there have been maintanence issues at this location, this wasn’t something that could have been caught in routine maintanence checks.

“We are trying to find all the details that we can to understand that better, but this is not maintenance. This is a failure of that has never been seen before.”