With the news that 19 of 25 units at a Bracebridge apartment building are uninhabitable, a new housing crisis has emerged.
The District of Muskoka and Town of Bracebridge determined that some apartments inside 19 Monck Road could no longer house residents after the building’s roof began flooding heavily over the weekend.
The roof has been a problem for over many months says tenant Dustin Appleton. The 26-year-old lives in an apartment with his wife and two young daughters.
“We’ve been reporting it to the town and to the legal clinic here in Bracebridge for probably seven-plus months now,” he says. “The landlord refused to do anything about it.”
Appleton says he was away from the building for a couple of days and when he returned he knew something had happened.
“I just got back and realized what was going on. I opened my door and it was like, my apartment is destroyed,” he recalls.
He has moved his family temporarily into his father’s Kilworthy home.
Appleton says many people have been trying to raise the alarm about conditions at the building and now officials are being forced to act.
“We’ve complained to basically everybody we can,” he explains.”And as far as I know many people have as well and they haven’t done anything until now. I am assuming they are forced to now that it is out in public.”
A call yesterday to the landlord Zoe Theodorpoulos was answered by her daughter. She indicated “everything was being looked after.” When asked for clarification of what that exactly meant, the woman, who would not give her name, simply indicated all issues were being looked after.
Appleton says the damages to his personal property, including clothes, furniture, and electronics is several thousand dollars and he has no renters insurance.
“There is a couple of articles of dry clothes and stuff that was up off the ground,” he says.
Eva Zachary of Muskoka Victim Services confirmed that they were currently in contact with residents of 17 of the 19 units, and she believes two apartments might have been empty at the time. There are 25 people confirmed from 14 units plus their pets that MVS has helped in the immediate aftermath.
“We look after their emotional and physical needs in the initial stages,” says Zachary.
The District of Muskoka is actually charged with finding emergency shelter in the short term and developing a longer-term strategy going forward.