Many of the residents who lived at 869 Adelaide St. won’t be going home again. At least not in the foreseeable future.
The building was the site of a massive fire on Saturday.
Some of the 42 units will have to be rebuilt entirely, while others will need to be restored.
That means residents are looking for other accommodations and city officials are working to make the transition as painless as possible.
Tenants made their way into the Adelaide Gardens apartment complex Tuesday to recover some of their belongings. They learned they will have to find somewhere else to stay.
The landlord told the London Housing Corporation that a combination of fire, smoke and water damage has left all 42 units uninhabitable.
The exterior structure will stand, but the buildings will effectively be gutted.
The challenge is many of the residents have lost ID, bus passes and most of their belongings. Some say they have nowhere else to go.
The city's housing and social services managing director says they're working to address all those concerns.
“Many people are coming forward…to identify where housing units are available,” says Sandra Datars Bere.
Still, many people are hoping others will come forward to help replace lost or damaged items – clothes, toys and electronic devices.
Erin Mullins was directly above the apartment where the fire started. She was finally able to get back into her apartment after three days and the one thing that gave her comfort was finding her cat after all that time.
“I called my cat and my cat came right to me,” she says.
Datars Bere says residents will be contacted over the next two days to begin the process of re-location.
