Toronto senior finally gets new windows in apartment after waiting for replacement for almost two months

Joyce Taylor returned home on Thursday to new windows in her downtown Toronto apartment after almost two months of waiting. Allison Hurst reports.

Joyce Taylor returned home on Thursday to new windows in her downtown Toronto apartment after almost two months of waiting.

“Oh, what a difference here,” she exclaimed to CTV News, “I got light! I got windows!”

This marks the end of a brutal saga for the 84-year-old that saw her windows removed from her unit at the end of November, but not replaced immediately.

She lived with the holes boarded up with wood and plastic for about a month and a half, suffering through December and part of January with heaters running to stay warm.

“Nobody was listening,” she said of her repeated calls to report the issue. “I’m just an old woman, they thought, they could do whatever they want.”

Over the holidays, a squirrel got into her unit, making a mess. She caught it in a cage, and staff members took it out, but still no one fixed her windows.

She told CTV News it was hard for her to breathe with all the heaters recirculating the air, and her skin was drying out.

“I was scared of getting sick because I was so cold,” she told CTV News. “It was like being in a dungeon. I hated to come home. I wanted to be out, but it was so cold and snowy and that I couldn’t get out.”

Taylor says calls by her and her son to management and the mayor’s office went unanswered, but within days of CTV News running her story last week, work restarted to install her new windows, and she was moved into a hotel with meals provided for the duration.

• ‘Nerve-racking’: Toronto senior has been without windows in her downtown apartment for more than a month

“I can’t say how much I thank you,” she said to CTV News. “I thank everybody for what they’ve done. I know it’s only words. But the heart. I feel it. I’m just so thankful.”

Exempt from paying rent for 2 months

The building is owned by Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). CTV News requested an interview with them last week, but staff declined and sent a statement instead.

“Toronto Community Housing is extremely grateful to Mrs. Taylor for her understanding during this time. We’re also grateful for her graciousness in accepting our sincere apology for this regrettable situation. As compensation for the discomfort Mrs. Taylor experienced, TCHC is crediting her with two months of rent,” the statement read.

Staff say this is the only time in TCHC’s history that an error like this has occurred, calling what happened to Taylor “a complete outlier.”

The TCHC has also conducted a full review of what led to Taylor’s situation and has identified several key changes going forward, including:

• Implementing a rigorous end-of-year closeout process to identify outstanding or temporary work.
• Ensuring logs for temporary work in tenant units are reviewed regularly in construction site meetings and reporting.
• Improved information sharing between staff at TCHC and Toronto Senior’s Housing (TSHC) who jointly support facilities management projects, as well as the TSHC tenants impacted by them.

Chow visits, apologizes

Mayor Olivia Chow called what Taylor went through “unacceptable and outrageous.”

“I can’t imagine that board, plexiglass, plastic for all of those long days and it’s been cold. And so, it’s tough,” Chow told CTV News Toronto when she visited Taylor on Thursday afternoon.

The mayor brought flowers and personally apologized to the 84-year-old for the ordeal she experienced.

Chow, who praised CTV News for bringing Taylor’s situation to her attention, revealed that the company that was supposed to replace the windows went into receivership. So, another company had to make the replacement.

“I thought, you take out the window, you put the window back in, usually takes one day. You don’t leave it for days and days and days in the middle of winter,” the mayor said.

“Yeah, there’s plexiglass and wood on it, but it’s not good enough. Can’t see the beautiful sunset.”

Chow is happy that the TCHC agreed to exempt Taylor from paying rent for two months after what she dealt with.

The mayor is hoping that the corporation will tighten its policies so it never happens again.

“The Toronto community housing and seniors’ housing need to do better. And when there is an obvious situation where a window is missing, and it’s minus 10 out there, they should immediately think about having the person placed to other places,” Chow said on Thursday morning at an unrelated news conference.

The mayor urged residents who are having problems to call 311 and, as a backup, her office.

“311 is the best route. Anything to do with the city, whether it’s window replacement or the landlord not fixing the elevators, anything at all, call 311,” the mayor said.

“Do not hesitate.”

Taylor said after the story ran last Wednesday, she heard from a manager, “he could not be more apologetic. He did not know what was going on. He was shocked.”

She told CTV News she still has trouble at night, “I do cry in my sleep, and I keep on brushing squirrels away. But I think that’s going to take time to get over it.”