It was supposed to be a safe, affordable home for Ontarians with nowhere else to go. But inside, it was horrifying. The rooms were cluttered with old furniture, old clothes, and a small, black electric kettle that had probably survived with its glass-covered metal lid for hundreds of years. The kitchen had no windows—they were blocked by a tangle of old pieces of broken glass. The bathroom had no hot water.
The government agency that made the decision to tear down the home is now charged with finding him a new home.
When the Ombudsman ruled that the government didn’t follow its own rules when it took the home down, the government is now attempting to appeal. But there are hundreds of other homes like this one in Toronto that can’t be saved.
“What I have seen in my years of doing this, I’ve never seen so much destruction,” said Michael Callaghan.
Calling it a “cataclysmic transformation,” the former chair of the Ontario government’s housing committee says his job was to watch that the destruction was not too complete. To him, that meant the government’s decision to demolish the two-storey, four bedroom home was a mistake.
“It looks like we have an arsonist arsonist,” said Callaghan. “It looks like a terrible accident. So I’m just not comfortable with the way things have turned out.”
The Ombudsman found that the government made two mistakes. First, the home it took down was not only an old, unsafe home, but it had serious structural defects that, if left unaddressed, could lead to the home’s collapse. The government was aware of the defects, but failed to follow its own rules, which say a developer must demolish a home if it is unsafe.
When the home’s owners appealed to the Ombudsman, the government asked for an “unusually generous” settlement. The Ombudsman agreed to give them the $10K per day that the city charges for house-of-call services—to be used until the demolition and new home are built.
“I’ve been doing this for 30-odd years and I’ve never seen so much destruction,” says Callaghan. “I have to tell you, I am