Months after displacement, former Swansea Mews residents frustrated, tired of fighting

Sharon Smith has been through a lot since having to leave her home of 21 years earlier this summer.

She is one of many residents forced to leave Swansea Mews, a community housing complex just west of High Park on Windermere Avenue near the Queensway, after a ceiling collapsed and injured a woman on May 27.

Since leaving, Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) has temporarily put Smith up at a hotel in Mississauga.

While grateful for somewhere to stay, the hotel's location makes going about her daily life much more difficult, she told CBC Toronto. 

"The location is the worst," she said. "There are no grocery stores around here. The only place that we could get something to eat is at McDonald's and it takes about 25 minutes to walk there."

Smith has weekly doctor appointments near her old home. She travels an hour and half both ways and has to pay both Mississauga and Toronto transit fares to get there.

"It takes a toll on me," she said. 

After the ceiling collapse in May, some Swansea Mews residents were told they may have to leave their units for a few weeks. But in mid-June, TCHC received an order to begin vacating all buildings in the complex after structural engineers deemed them unsafe. Since then, residents have been scattered to various temporary accommodations all over the GTA. 

A total of 114 units needed to be evacuated at the west-end complex, TCHC told CBC Toronto. As of Aug. 10, 52 of the displaced households have matched with new long-term residences. Of those, 44 have signed leases and 35 have already moved in. The new lease agreements include the right to return to Swansea Mews as soon as it's safe to do so.   

TCHC spokesperson Robin Smith (no relation) said that's not likely to be any time soon. 

"The short answer on the future of Swansea is we don't have a plan yet," he told CBC Toronto. "I think we can confidently say that it will be a number of years before people can return." 

TCHC is working closely with a number of different engineering consultants to figure out how best to move forward. Tenant safety is their top priority, he said. 

But residents like Sharon Smith aren't satisfied with TCHC's handling of the situation.

Communication with the agency has caused more confusion than clarity, she said.