Cancer patient, seniors among tenants fighting eviction from Queen West building

After calling the address home for decades, the tenants in four apartments at 1086 1/2 Queen Street West have been served eviction notices following the sale of the building late last year, leaving one of them in what she feels is a life and death situation.

“The stress of having to move, everything about having to move, it would kill me,” says Abra Shiner, who has lived in the building for 23 years.

Shiner was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer last year and later told it is terminal.

“It’s just a matter of time before it spreads to other organs. I just underwent another surgery to have my ovaries removed,” she says.

“As the cancer spreads, I’ll probably just keep having surgeries until it hits somewhere they can’t cut out.”

Shiner and her partner Mike are two of the five tenants in the building bought by DDS Property late last year. A month after the sale, they were notified that they have until May 31 to vacate.

“If I had to move right now, A – I don’t think that I have the strength to do it, and B – I don’t think that I could afford another place that was close enough to work and also somewhere close enough to Princess Margaret Hospital,” says Shiner.

She adds that doctors have told her she has about five years left to live.

“If I’m really lucky, I might have 10 years”

“There’s no way that I could live as long … if I’m far away from the hospital, if I don’t have access to good medical care — because of surgery and stuff like that, I’m not always mobile,” she says.

Abra Shiner and her dog nugget at her apartment on Queen West. Credit: Abra Shiner

The notice Shiner was served is an N12 form.

“An N12 seems to be the type of eviction notice where they say that a family member will be taking over the use of this unit,” she says, adding that she was told that a new landlord’s son would be moving in.

Her neighbours, including two senior citizens, all received N13 notices, which are issued when the property owner is looking to evict tenants in order to conduct major renovations.

Jillian Kovacik, who has lived in the building for 13 years, says each of the tenants have been told “a different story.”

“They told me it’s in very bad repair, it’s not safe to live here — but they’re moving their kids in,” she says, referring to Shiner’s notice.

Cole Webber from Parkdale Community Legal services says landlords are within their rights to evict tenants in order to renovate.

“The eviction notices that have been issued by the landlord to the tenants at 1086 Queen Street West are legal,” he says.

However, he adds they’ve repeatedly seen neighbourhood tenants paying less than market rent get evicted from their homes, with landlords stating a variety of reasons.

“The combination of different eviction notices certainly raises questions as to what the landlord actually intends to do with the building,” he says.

After an eviction notice is issued and the landlord files the necessary paperwork with the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), tenants do not have to vacate immediately and have the right to await a hearing before the board.

While there are provisions to delay or refuse evictions based on the tenant’s circumstances, Webber says refusals are rare.

“In general the board is not going to stop an eviction because a tenant is ill or low income or anything like that,” he says.

“Generally, if the LTB is going to take that into consideration, they’re simply going to give the tenant a little bit more time — maybe a month more time — to find a new place to live.”

Jillian Kovacik and her cat Mikey at her apartment on Queen West. CITYNEWS/Dilshad Burman

Kovacik says she has no option but to stay and fight the eviction.

“I think rent is pretty bad anywhere within an hour outside of the city. My job is in the city, I can’t work from home. I have to come in and do it physically, I am working class. So I don’t know what I would do [if I had to move],” she says, adding she is outraged for her neighbours as well.

“I don’t know how they’re going to survive in the way the world is right now.”

“I’m upset that this keeps happening. It’s a widespread issue across the city and something needs to stop. People deserve affordable housing and that’s not what this building is going to be afterwards,” she says.

Shiner adds that she understands that the eviction process is legal and assumes the landlords are being truthful, but is hoping to appeal to their sense of compassion and fairness.

“They seem to be relatively affluent and they appear to be in the business of properties. And I think that there are probably other options for them to house their son. Whereas for me, there are no other options,” she says.

She says she has tried reaching out to the landlords to explain her position and sent them medical proof that a move would be detrimental to her health.

“I have doctor’s notes from both my family doctor and from the team at Princess Margaret attesting to that which I have sent to the landlords,” she says — but there’s been no response.

A community petition supporting Shiner’s appeal has now garnered more than 25,000 signatures. Shiner says they’re not in need of funds and are not asking for donations, only that the eviction notices be withdrawn.

“[The petition] is asking for them to please just talk to me, work something out with me, maybe let me finish off living in peace in my home with access to medical care and a sense of comfort and with my community around me,” she says.

CityNews reached out to DDS Property for comment but have yet to receive a response.