Loft story

Evacuated last July, Mile End’s decrepit 5555 de Gaspé is accepting tenants once again

by ELISABETH FAURE

January 13, 2011

NO GOING BACK: Former residents Jennifer Hamilton and Guillaume Simoneau
Photo by WILL LEW

It’s business as usual at 5555 de Gaspé, following an emergency evacuation of the industrially zoned loft building last summer. Questions continue to surround the Mile End building, where a large sign outside is once again advertising lofts for rent—only six months after 70-plus residents were unceremoniously booted from their digs. “I showed up, and there were chains on the door and a Red Cross van outside,” Jennifer Hamilton recalls. Hamilton, a freelance photographer/musician/yoga instructor, was among those kicked to the curb. Most of the building’s inhabitants were young Plateau freelancers whose apartments doubled as their workplace. But the building was violating numerous parts of the fire safety code, from blocked exits to a faulty alarm system. The owner, Johnny Svetna, allegedly ignored prior warnings from the fire department to fix problems. Residents say they were blindsided. They soon learned they were caught in a legal grey zone due to the building’s zoning designation. Former tenant Guillaume Simoneau says the designation was a surprise to him and other tenants.

WHO NEEDS A LEASE?

Housing rights advocate Arnold Bennett says many loft-dwellers are unaware of the complexities of municipal zoning laws. “Anywhere where people are living in something that is zoned as industrial or commercial, then we have a problem,” he says.

Most loft buildings in Montreal (many located by highways or train tracks) are not zoned for residential use, and their tenants do not have the same rights as those living in residentially zoned buildings. Borough spokesperson Michel Tanguay says the fire department has cleared the building, but borough inspectors will check on whether 5555’s new tenants are violating zon ing regulations “now that the holidays are over.”

Compounding the problem was the fact that some previous tenants say they did not have valid leases. “Did we have a lease? The answer is, half yes, half no,” says Simoneau. “Yes, in the sense that, sure, I have an eight-and-a-half-by-11 piece of photocopied paper saying that I live there and I was paying my rent every month. It was a bit ghetto.”

Svetna refutes the allegations, saying he’s the “biggest victim” in all of this. He claims that pre-evacuation, 5555 had a new fire alarm system in place, waiting to be hooked up. But a Montreal legal reserve placed on the property—Svetna says City Hall wants to acquire 5555 as part of a re-development plan—discouraged him from finishing the job. “They’re negotiat ing to buy the building—what are we gonna hook it up for? So we can un-hook it after?” The reserve has since been lifted. Svetna insists that every 5555 resident has a commercial lease, and he’s never forced anyone to pay in cash. “They paid the way they wanted to pay.”

Sam, a current 5555 tenant who requested anonymity for fear of being evicted, claims not to have a lease and says, “Everyone here pays rent in cash. People have been moving in and out a lot lately.”

Hamilton lived at 5555 for three years. For much of that time, she had no lease and paid rent in cash. Eventually she signed a makeshift retroactive lease that covered the time she’d already lived there, and the future.

A GOOD MOVE

Simoneau says he’s disillusioned with the city and borough officials. “Sure, they sound sincere—they sounded sincere the whole time we were getting evicted,” he says. “When this happened, they said they would help us. And they did nothing.”

Alex Norris, the city councillor for Mile End, disputes that. “We did everything within our power to help,” he says. “We referred the people to emergency services, we asked the fire department for a report and we sent a letter to Claude Trudel [the executive committee member in charge of the fire department] asking that fire safety code infractions should be made public.” Norris also says the decision to close the building was made by the fire department and not the borough. “What the fire department told us is that if there had been a fire in that building, everybody would have died.”

Despite everything, some evictees say life is going well. “It was an enormous blessing that came in the form of an enormous disaster,” says Simoneau, who has since found a better place with his girlfriend.

“I’m very thankful for all of the support [I received],” says Hamilton. “I’m from a small town and it’s nice to have the same sense of community in Montreal.”

But for those currently living at 5555, the future isn’t so rosy. “No one here knows what’s going to happen next,” says Sam. ■