Washed-out tenants wait as unit repairs drag on
Unknown when work will wrap up at building
DISPLACED RESIDENTS of a flood-damaged apartment building in downtown Hamilton are waiting in limbo as its renovation drags on.
“They had told us about three months and we’re going into seven months,” Serena Pollock said.
But her landlord, Medallion Corporation, disputes a 90-day turnaround was ever suggested.
“If anybody had that sense, it didn’t originate with us, certainly,” spokesperson Danny Roth said.
Pollock is one of dozens who had to leave their units at 235 Rebecca St. after a standpipe burst on the sixth floor in early January.
She and others took the Torontobased landlord’s offer to cover three months’ rent to live elsewhere until they could move back to their units.
“So I’ve got half of my stuff in storage, thinking it was only going to be three months.”
Pollock is staying at 195 Wellington St. S., a low-rise apartment building in Corktown that Medallion Corporation also operates.
The Rebecca flood pushed out residents of 61 units on the first six floors of the 17-storey building.
Renters in roughly 30 of those units opted to leave while the other half chose to stay, Roth noted.
He described the current work as “exploratory” remediation, which must be finished before reconstruction can begin. This is expected to wrap up in the next couple of weeks.
But Roth was reluctant to give a timeline for when tenants could move back in, calling the big job “fairly fluid” and subject to unexpected factors.
“We will certainly push to get those remaining residents back into their units as quickly as possible.”
The Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, which helped tenants after the flood, believes Medallion has abided by the Residential Tenancies Act.
But staff are concerned “undue delay” in repairs could “undermine the tenants’ practical ability” to return as they’ll be obliged to commit to longer-term leases, lawyer Stephanie Cox said.
The building, between Wellington and Cathcart streets, is home to many residents living on low incomes and with disabilities, Cox noted. The ordeal has “most definitely” affected their “sense of security and continuity of housing.”
The legal clinic encourages displaced tenants to write Medallion with updated contact information so the landlord knows how to reach them after repairs are done.
They’re entitled to reoccupy their renovated units under the same terms — including rent — outlined in their lease agreements.
In January, Medallion raised eyebrows after it tried to vacate residents within three days of the standpipe disaster.
The landlord then offered more time — two weeks — and three months’ compensation plus other help after residents, with legal clinic advice, pushed back.
In Hamilton, some investors have been known to buy rental buildings, liquidate tenants, renovate and then charge higher rents.
In a tight market for affordable units, this is seen by anti-poverty advocates as a troubling trend.
On Wednesday, Roth said Medallion isn’t trying to discourage the remaining residents: “I hope what has been clear is that there is no attempt to drag this process out. There is no attempt to vacate the tenancies or to lose these tenants.”
Cheryl Fawcett decided to stay at 235 Rebecca. She was relocated to a 16th-floor unit after being washed out of the fifth floor.
Fawcett, 57, gets by on social assistance and is coping with a serious illness.
She’s not crazy about sticking around but can’t afford to pay more than her current $660 a month. “And you try to find another place. Good luck, because you can’t.”
Fellow tenant Jim Andrew, a 56year-old who also relies on social assistance and uses a wheelchair, predicts a long wait. “I don’t expect to see my apartment for at least another year and a half.”
Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr said he has fielded calls from residents and has asked city staff to look into the matter.