Asbestos removal to force mass tenant relocation in City of Hamilton-owned social housing highrises
Removing the hazardous fibres from peeling ceilings will take the social housing agency months and millions of dollars.
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Marianne Theriault in her 30 Congress Cres. 10th floor apartment where the stipple ceiling is delaminating and has been covered with plastic because it contains asbestos. - John Rennison,The Hamilton Spectator
ASBESTOS-CEILING
This section of the apartment’s ceiling is delaminating and is now covered with a thin plastic sheet because asbestos backs the ceiling’s stipple coating. - John Rennison,The Hamilton Spectator
CEILING-DETAIL
The stipple ceilingdelaminating in a 30 Congree Cres. apartment has been covered with plastic because it contains asbestos. - John Rennison,The Hamilton Spectator
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Hundreds of tenants must relocate to allow safe repairs of peeling, water-damaged asbestos ceilings found in two city-owned social housing highrises in the east end.
The careful removal of the hazardous fibres, which can cause lung disease if inhaled, will affect residents on nearly every floor of both 10-storey apartment buildings at 20 and 30 Congress Cres., near Mount Albion Road. Remediation will happen one floor at a time, with uprooted tenants cycling through empty units elsewhere in the complex for weeks or even months.
The project will also eat up more than half of cash-strapped CityHousing Hamilton's $8.6-million capital repair budget — causing a domino effect of delays for buildings elsewhere, said board president Chad Collins.
"It's going to put us in an even deeper hole, to be blunt. And obviously our residents will not be happy because it has the potential to be quite the logistical nightmare, moving everyone around," he said. "But it has to be done. It's a health and safety issue, not discretionary spending."
Marianne Theriault is trying to look on the bright side of the impending upheaval while keeping a nervous eye on her now plastic-wrapped bedroom ceiling on the 10th floor of 30 Congress Cres.
"I'm not thrilled about having it up there, that's for sure," said Theriault, who suffers from environmental allergies and was feeling anxious about the asbestos discovery until an environmental consultant gave her apartment air quality a thumbs-up late last year. "But I appreciate that they're at least trying to do something about it, not turning a blind eye."
Theriault added she dislikes living so high in the sky, so relocation might be a blessing in disguise. "I know some people are more upset about having to move, again and again. But for me, I just want the asbestos gone or a new place to live."
CityHousing CEO Tom Hunter said the problem was discovered when annual inspections in September found leaky water pipes were causing ceilings to peel on several floors of both 1970s-era buildings.
Some of the ceilings had been sprayed with "popcorn" texturing decades ago — and followup tests showed they contained asbestos fibres. The spray-on ceilings were common between 1950 and 1980 when asbestos was still a regularly used building material.
Asbestos is not dangerous when inert, but disturbed fibres can become airborne and inhalable.