By Perry King

Outside her unit in the stairway at 250 Davenport Rd., Kathy Halliday has found makeshift beds and human feces. Perry King/Gleaner News

Kathy Halliday says she has had enough of the lack of heat, poor quality of service, negligent management, and lack of security in her Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC)-owned unit.

“This morning, when I was coming to see you, I walked out to a nice condom and a pair of underwear,” said  Halliday, a tenant of a two-floor townhouse at 250 Davenport Rd.

Visiting 250 Davenport, the Gleaner observed makeshift beds and human feces in the stair corridor by Halliday’s unit. “People are living in there, people are living in the staircase,” said Halliday, a tenant since 1988.

She has mould on her walls and windows and has had numerous leaks and water damage to her furniture—and says nothing has changed in ten years. By her account, the property managers have been negligent on a number of fronts—not just repairs. “My brother passed away in 2007, I’m still getting a lease in my brother’s name. That’s unacceptable.”

Other residents have come forward with similar stories to Halliday’s. “When I first moved in here, the quality of the people were different and it was definitely cleaner. It was in better shape,” said Mauva Smith, a tenant since 2000. “[Now] there’s weird people walking around sometimes, and there are drug addicts. They use the townhouse as a pathway all the time now.”

Halliday and other tenants are preparing a lawsuit related to the complaints. Through Downtown Legal Services (655 Spadina Ave.), Halliday retained Lee Webb, a second-year law student.

Webb says the final details of the lawsuit, including the number of plaintiffs and the basis of the claims, are not finalized. “People are starting to back out on us, I don’t know if it’s because they’re scared, because they have kids or what the deal is,” said Halliday.

As of press date, neither TCHC nor Greenwin Property Management—contracted to manage 250 Davenport until March of next year—had been served papers, but both companies say they do their best to respond to tenant concerns.

“We house 164,000 tenants in 58,500 units, so it is not uncommon for us to have tenants coming forward with service requests,” wrote TCHC representative Sinead Canavan in an email.

Canavan says that tenants have emergency numbers to call in case of emergencies and security issues. A Tenant Complaint Process form is also available.

“Our bigger challenge is our $650-million capital repair bill, and the fact that we don’t have the funding needed to bring our buildings to a good state of repair. Without change, more of our housing will fall into a poor state of repair. This is why we propose action like selling 706 houses and using the $300 million in sales proceeds for much-needed repairs.”

Bruce Creber , vice president of residential services for Greenwin, said that they are aware of problems in the building, and that while they have tried to make repairs, the larger issues are structural and a matter of concern for the TCHC.

“We really do care about the residents, a lot. But, we can only do that which we’re contracted to do. There’s no more resources which we’re given to do it. We’ve had the contract for a lot of years, and I think that sort of speaks to the service we endeavour to give and one we hope to continue to give. It’s not our place to address the overall global problem of TCHC, that’s a political decision that has to be made by far different people than ourselves. We’re just the servants of the masters.”

For Halliday, the last straw was management’s response to a flood in her apartment on March 4. While she called management, and they fixed the leak, three days later, “there was just water coming up everywhere.”

After her calls to Greenwin went unanswered, Halliday contacted TCHC and a work order was drawn up. Greenwin did not comply until May 27 and Halliday says their response was insufficient. “I kicked them out of my house,” she said. “Caulking and plastering [for a leak] is not enough.”

Smith says she has noticed rats and poor maintenence of the building’s facade. “It’s not good, it’s not like they respect anybody. They don’t listen to our complaints, really. They just have little temporary solutions, but they don’t really address the problems.”

Halliday says all of the tenants have similar problems. “One of the girls had a major leak a couple weeks ago, which flooded out her basement. She had wall-to-wall carpeting. Housing came in and said ‘Oh’ and walked back out.”

For Rita DiBiasi, who is also involved in the lawsuit, negligence has been a theme in Greenwin’s management style. “I’ve had two days off .. for them to fix my bathroom—like the tiles, the tub. If you had seen them before … [the bathroom was] caving in,” said DiBiasi. “All these broken promises … How long does it take to do a quote?”

DiBiasi and Halliday have also informed property management about heating in their units, which they say has not been adequate for several years. In the past, Halliday has pleaded with management to fix the heating issue, as the old units—unlike the tower units—have reinforced conrcrete walls. As of press date, the tenants were still without heat, but Halliday had received a letter from Greenwin stating the heating system would be fixed and the units inspected. The letter said the repairs could take at least a month.

250 Davenport Rd. also includes 26 storeys of apartment units. Perry King/Gleaner News

Located at Davenport and Bedford Roads, 250 Davenport includes a 26-storey housing tower and 11 townhouse units. It is one of several townhouse projects in the TCHC porfolio.

Greenwin is one of the largest property management companies in Canada. With numerous residential properties across the country, it is one of three companies contracted to manage day-to-day affairs for the TCHC—a large share of 10,400 TCHC properties.

The company  manages the affairs of 200 Wellesley St. E., the site of an infamous six-alarm fire in 2010. A class action lawsuit was filed by tenants at 200 Wellesley against Greenwin and TCHC as a result of the fire, alleging breach of contract and negligence on the grounds that the defendants permitted a tenant to create a fire hazard by hoarding large quantities of paper in his apartment. The case is still before the courts.

While the details of their lawsuit have yet to be finalized, Halliday is clear about the compensation she wants. “I want a one-bedroom apartment out of the deal, I want to move,” said Halliday.

Whatever happens, the tenants believe the lawsuit could be the force that creates more accountability for Greenwin and TCHC. “We were afraid to speak” said DiBiasi. “We just settled for living in these conditions. Thanks to this, whether it is a lawsuit or not, it’s one voice that just made us wake up and say ‘We have rights.’”