Toronto mayor vows to tackle repairs at west-end housing complex after tenant hospitalized following a ceiling collapse

Toronto Mayor John Tory is promising to address safety concerns at a public housing complex in the city’s west end after a bedroom ceiling recently collapsed seriously injuring a female tenant.

The incident happened on May 27 at Swansea Mews, a 154-unit Toronto Community Housing development just west of High Park near Windermere Avenue and The Queensway.

Initially, those living in Block H, where the ceiling fell in, were relocated.

The social housing provider, in a May 27 update posted to its website, said it also offered temporary accommodation to other tenants who “feel unsafe in their unit.”

Today, a TCHC spokesperson told CP24 they’ve since made the decision to temporarily move all of the complex’s 113 occupied households (41 units were already vacant due to previous repairs being done) as a “precautionary measure.” That process is now underway.

“If we leave people in there, we don’t know,” Robin Smith said, adding all 400 or so residents were told last week that they’d have to vacate their units for shoring work and engineering tests that would be done throughout the complex.

Smith indicated issues at Swansea Mews are likely part of a larger problem, one that dates back to when it was first constructed back in the 1970s. He said this is something they believe is “beyond the scope of regular inspections.”

Speaking to reporters Monday morning, Tory said he’s meeting with Toronto Community Housing’s CEO Jag Sharma this afternoon and that repairing Swansea Mews would be “top of the list.”

He called the recent situation at Swansea Mews “very worrisome” and said the city will look into what happened.

Tory also said plans are already “well in place” to revitalize this aging complex along with funds to make it happen. He said this could take the form of either refurbishing or completely replacing the buildings in the development.

“But most importantly, we will be looking to get on with either the replacement of these buildings, which sometimes turns out to be a better thing for everybody concerned, including the taxpayers, or the refurbishment of it as soon as possible,” he said.

Parkdale-High Park Coun. Gord Perks, whose west-end riding includes the area where the complex is located, said what has happened at Swansea Mews is “incredibly disruptive.” He said the city is working with local schools boards to ensure displaced children finish the last few weeks of the year and that tenants have all of their basic needs met.

Perks said a Request for Proposals was due to be issued early next year for Swansea Mews as it had already been identified as needing “reconstruction work.”

“There have been major problems at this complex. … The tragedy of all of this is we were almost at the finish line,” he said, adding the city has struggled for more than 25 years to keep TCHC properties in a good state of repair since the province downloaded this file to them. Perks said city council has been pushing hard to get financial help from the provincial and federal governments for social housing, but so far only the feds have stepped up to the plate.

The TCHC currently has an approximately $1.6 billion repair backlog. The federal government has previously committed to providing the city with $1.34 billion in funding to help address the repair backlog by 2028.

The TCHC says that it will be providing a formal update about the situation at Swansea Mews later on today.

“Tenants’ safety is our top priority and we will be taking all possible precautions to safeguard them. TCHC staff are on-site in the community to communicate directly with those impacted and we will continue to provide information as it becomes available,” the agency said on May 27.

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