Home for the holidays: Some displaced 1616 Ouellette Ave. residents to return

Home in time for the holidays About 54 residents who were evacuated from 1616 Ouellette Ave. last month are able to return home. Sijia Liu has details.

Some displaced tenants of 1616 Ouellette Avenue will be heading home in time for the holidays.

On Nov. 22, building officials with the City of Windsor ordered the evacuation of the private four-story apartment building when heat, electricity and life safety systems were all failing.

“The City of Windsor did lift the prohibition order earlier this morning,” said Marda Management owner Marla Coffin. “We’ve been able to start to walk tenants back into their home.”

She said 53-54 residents will be moving back in Friday.

“We're excited to welcome them today,” Coffin said.

Coffin said her company was brought in to help with crisis management and was asked restore heat, ensure fire and life safety and make the sure power to the units was not interrupted.

“That work is done,” said Coffin in a phone interview with CTV Windsor, so the city is allowing reoccupancy of 1616 Ouellette.

“There is a lot of work to be done at the property to bring it to the standard that I think the city, the community, the owners and tenants would like to see,” she said.

Coffin said the work will likely take months, and includes the replacement of 400 windows on the building.

“The property owners are looking to restore this building heavily and really bring it back to its former glory. That’s going to take a lot of time,” she said.

For now, Marda Management has been able to at least make the property safe for occupancy Coffin said.

City officials worked with the Canadian Red Cross to open a temporary emergency shelter for as many as 45 residents, who were unable to find alternate accommodations of their own immediately.

For three weeks, the John Atkinson Memorial Community Centre provided a temporary emergency shelter where residents received three meals a day, clothing, medical care and relocation supports.

According to Coffin some residents are returning to 1616 Ouellette Ave., while others have made arrangements for alternative living spaces.

“We’ve let the tenants know that today our number one priority is getting them back in their homes,” Coffin said. “We're not looking to collect any rent today or to deal with any rent that may be outstanding today. We’re just looking to get them back and settled in their homes.”

“The tenants are eligible for rent abatement for the time period that they were out, if they did pay their rent.”

- With files from CTV Windsor's John Lewis and Sijia Liu