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Residents of a Vancouver Island apartment complex that’s been declared unsafe to live in for the second time in four years got a small piece of good news Thursday — but some say newly-offered supports won’t go far to helping them out of a crisis.
Tenants of RidgeView Place in Langford were ordered out of the building after the city revoked the 90-unit building’s occupancy permit on Monday, following a report from an independent engineer that found structural safety issues.
“I disassociated really quick, because in that moment it’s fight or flight,” tenant Nic Roach told Global News. “So we chose fight and just started packing and focused on next steps, where are we going from here because that’s all that’s under our control right now.”
Building owner Centurion Apartment Properties initially offered residents $1,000 in “compassionate assistance.”
In the wake of public outcry, the company has raised that assistance to $2,500. The city and provincial government have now also agreed to cover five days of temporary supports for evacuated residents, including food, lodging and transportation.
“This is not long-term. This is to get people right now, who are between insurance or whatever reason don’t have money for hotels, this is to get them through this next short period,” Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson said.
“We hear so often that provincial governments are slow and it takes forever for things to get done. I can tell you that there were multiple meetings at multiple times at once with different individuals in these groups to get this pulled through.”
Just days before Christmas in 2019, residents of the then-nearly new building — formerly named Danbrook One — were handed a similar evacuation order.
That order was based on seismic and foundation issues, and an investigation later found the building’s structural engineer hadn’t been qualified for the type of concrete construction used in the building.
The building was repaired and renamed, and suites were rented again in 2022.
Tenant Nathan Hale said given the building’s troubled history, the company’s offer of support feels insufficient.
“I’d rather have every dollar I had to give these guys back, obviously that’s a bit of a dream,” he said, estimating he’d paid close to $30,000 in rent for the year he’s rented his two-bedroom unit.
“The rent is crazy expensive in Langford and we’re living in a building that isn’t safe to stand?”
No one from Centurion would agree to an on-camera interview.
But in a statement, the company said the increase in assistance for residents came after learning “some residents are experiencing some difficulty accessing tenants’ insurance.”
“The $2,500 is a drop in the bucket,” Roach said.
“But I am sure there are other tenants who have much higher expenses that would probably appreciate more, especially considering we don’t know when we are getting our deposits back from here, and if everyone has to fork out for first month’s again, that is where the real consideration is going to have to come in from the management.”
Meanwhile, Langford residents have been rallying around the building’s occupants.
A GoFundMe campaign organized by Langford local Lisa Foxall had raised close to $7,000 by Thursday evening.
“We just felt so awful for them and we wanted to do what we could to help them, our hearts were just aching for them,” Foxall said.
“That’s our community, that’s Langford. When something happens and in a crisis we all come together and we help one another. That’s us. We support each other.”
It remains unclear if and when tenants will be able to return to the building, or whether an investigation will be staged into the building’s woes.
Work to remediate the structure cannot begin until it is fully vacated, and while many residents Global News spoke with on Thursday were packing up, they said they’d heard of others who planned to stay until they were forced out.
In the meantime, residents seeking support are being told to register with the provincial government’s Emergency Support Services program.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.