Crumbling Montreal building slated for demolition forces 2nd evacuation this year

Having just moved into his new apartment in June, Charles Emond had barely finished unpacking his belongings when he was told by the Montreal fire department last Friday to pack up and get out. 

He said he and the other tenants were told they had 15 minutes to leave the building at 5980-5982 Park Ave. in Montreal's Plateau–Mont-Royal borough. 

"It was my first apartment with my girlfriend, so it was something special," he said on Monday. "The last three or four days have been the most stressful of my life." 

Emond was part of the latest round of tenants forced to evacuate their homes over the past four months, all due to a crumbling structure sitting adjacent to them.

Part of the exterior wall of the derelict building at 5986-5992 Park Ave. collapsed in March, forcing the tenants living in the building next door to the left out of their homes. 

Last Friday, Montreal firefighters responded to a call just after 2 p.m. after someone noticed bricks falling off the crumbling building's opposite wall, and ordered the evacuation of Emond's building — next door to the right — due to the "imminent risk of a collapse," according to Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SIM) spokesperson Guy Lapointe.

With the two buildings now sitting empty, Plateau–Mont-Royal borough mayor Luc Rabouin says it's a matter of weeks before the derelict building sandwiched between them finally comes down. 

But with little faith in the borough's ability or willingness to accommodate tenants given the experience of those two doors down, Emond and his partner decided to break their lease and move into another apartment offered to them by their landlord.

Displaced tenants from the evacuation Friday were under the care of the Red Cross for three days. Those that are still unhoused are now being accompanied by the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal. It can't, however, provide subsidized units to tenants whose revenue is too high, it said in a statement. 

During a borough council meeting Monday, Rabouin said the borough will carry out the demolition of the building at 5986-5992 Park Ave. if its owners don't, adding that an engineering firm is expected to provide a plan by the end of the week.

"We're dealing with a landlord who is playing cat and mouse with us, who is very difficult to reach, who gives us signs of good intentions that ultimately don't come true," he said. 

The building administrators, Daniel Lalonde and Jonathan Pigeon, had committed to demolishing the property on June 2, according to Rabouin. That was after the borough says it had to hire a private investigator to serve them a demolition order.

Reached by CBC on Tuesday, Pigeon says he and his partner were not negligent and that there was no private investigator. He said his office had simply changed addresses and that he signed the borough's documents electronically. He blames the borough for the delay. 

"Everyone is in communication, there was never a cat and mouse [game], the demolition process is going well, the contract has already been awarded," he wrote in French in a text message to CBC.