Rooming house operator fined for fire code violations
Fines have been laid against a Scarborough rooming house operator and his business, the city confirmed Friday morning.
Both Comfort Residential Group Home Inc. and Winston Manning, a director at that company, have received fines after pleading guilty to multiple fire code violations.
Six Scarborough properties — 108 Fawcett Trail, 692 Birchmount Rd., 107 Westcroft Dr., 78 Rouge River Dr., 32 Panama Ct. and 1320 Victoria Park Ave. — were found to be illegally operating as rooming houses in 2017, city officials noted in a report released Friday.
Manning is facing a $4,000 fine for using a building for a “non-permitted purpose,” and $73,000 plus a 25 per cent victim-fine surcharge and court costs, for “numerous violations” of the Ontario Fire Code. Manning is also facing a twoyear probation that requires him to comply with all regulations if he operates a rooming house, group home or other multiple-unit residence.
Comfort Residential Group Home Inc. was fined $7,500.
Toronto Fire said safety investigations that took place over several months in 2017 found violations that include a failure to provide the required number of exits on each floor, failure to maintain interconnected smoke alarms, failure to have approved fire safety plans implemented in the buildings and failure to install carbon monoxide alarms, among others.
This wasn’t the first investigation into Manning and his business. In 2016, the Ontario Provincial Police launched an investigation that ran over seven months following complaints about unsanitary conditions, overcrowding and a lack of qualified staff at homes offering live-in assistance to seniors and people with mental health issues.
That investigation focused largely on Manning and his spouse, Phyllis Jackson, who operated five homes in the city with four to eight residents living in each.
The investigation found unsafe conditions due to illegal construction, unlicensed personal support workers, dead mice and the strong odour of human urine and feces, but charges were not pursued as the OPP at that time said enforcement would mean displacing vulnerable people.
At a campaign event, John Tory said safe, supportive housing, which is primarily the responsibility of the province, is in short supply.
“Where there’s an illegal use being made of a house or where even if it’s legal the conditions are not appropriate and not safe, enforcement action is taken,” he said, noting the city will continue “rigorous inspection programs.”
He said the city needs the public’s co-operation in reporting group homes that are not up to standard with vulnerable people involved.
Toronto Fire has been cracking down on properties that do not comply with code standards. In May, the owners of a commercial building at 1100 Birchmount Rd. in Scarborough’s Ionview neighbourhood, as well as the owners of two condos at 77 and 79 Harbour Square on the Waterfront, had charges laid against them for numerous fire code infractions.