Fight continues as deadline approaches for seniors to leave Mississauga residence

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Published July 11, 2024 at 4:13 pm

chartwell eviction mississauga

As a deadline to leave a Mississauga retirement residence quickly approaches, a handful of seniors remain in the building while family members continue to fight.

In March, Chartwell Heritage Glen Retirement Residence in Meadowvale served approximately 188 Notice to End Tenancy (N13) notices. The seniors were told they have until the end of July to find new homes. This left about 200 seniors scrambling for affordable apartments during one of Canada’s worst housing crises.

Chartwell has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with real estate company Minto, Chartwell said in March. Minto plans to renovate the existing buildings and redevelop them as traditional residential rental units for all age groups.

While most residents have now found homes, a few are hanging on, at least one resident died shortly after moving out and many families are fighting for legislative changes.

Sinead Hutchinson’s father, 88, and mother, 82, have lived in the building for 24 years. Her father has terminal, stage-four liver cancer.

“It’s hard to think about moving right now,” Hutchinson told INsauga.com.

Even if her father wasn’t ill, moving is tough for seniors.

“A move at this age is very stressful.”

Hutchinson believes there were a few residents still in the building in early July including a 94-year-old woman she has visited.

It’s unclear right now if Hutchinson’s parents and the remaining residents will be able to leave by the end of July.

In a statement to INsauga.com, Chartwell said it is working to find homes for the residents.

“Over the past three months, our transition team has worked diligently to find new accommodations for the vast majority of residents,” the statement reads. “We remain committed to working with the remaining two residents in the same respectful manner to find acceptable accommodations for them.”

But many families said the seniors shouldn’t have to face moving at this stage in their life.

“The toll these people have had to endure is heart-wrenching,” Pamela Leermakers told INsauga.com.

Leermakers’ mother-in-law was a Heritage Glen resident but she moved to a new home in early June. She found a place at Holland Christian Homes in Brampton, which is nice but farther for family to visit.

The news that Chartwell is selling White Eagle Long-Term Care Residence in Parkdale is concerning, Leemakers said and she is still fighting and advocating for change through social media.

“I hope that, somebody, government, or somebody can put some pressure and stop this from continuously happening,” she said.

In a statement, Chartwell said there are no plans to close any other of their retirement residents. Earlier, they said Heritage Glen’s aging infrastructure made it “unsustainable to continue operations as a retirement residence.”


Sadly, a number of residents have died since the notices went out to evict, according to reports.

Jeff Fernandes said his 85-year-old father-in-law died about one week after moving from Heritage Glen to a new apartment. He had been at Heritage Glen for three to four years and was comfortable there.

Fernandes said the new place was in Mississauga, not far from Heritage Glen and his father-in-law liked it but the move was stressful. It took a while to find a place that was in his price range.

“He was frustrated because every day he came to ask me, So what’s happening? What’s happening? What’s happening?” Fernandes said.

Fernandes had hoped the government would step in.

“Nobody cares, nobody was able to make the decision to stop it.”

Some families have joined the Heritage Glen Defence Committee, formed to fight for the seniors and make changes to the current system.

Karen Santaguida, whose 92-year-old mother was a Heritage Glen resident for 20 years, is one of the family members who continues to speak out.

Santaguida’s mother also found a place at Holland Christian Homes in Brampton.

She believes most residents had to move out of Mississauga.

“That’s the heartbreaking part, they lost their community, their homes, their health care,” she said. “They had a doctor in there who was in once a week if anything was wrong. It was easy to whip down and so they lost a lot. They lost the proximity to their families because now some are in Milton or Orangeville. They’re all over the place.”

The loss of community also concerns the councillor for the area Martin Reid.

“I’ve lived in this area, my whole life so I know the significance of that building,” Reid told INsauga.com.

As it was a private sale and the building was previously an apartment building, the city could not stop its conversion from retirement residence back to a traditional apartment building again, he said.

Reid said his first priority was to make sure there are “no homeless seniors.”

Chartwell offered spots in their other homes but they were out of many residents price range — some as high as triple what they were paying. Fortunately, other retirement homes came in and offered more affordable spots for the residents, Reid said.

“I’m grateful that our seniors did find places to live. It’s unfortunate how traumatic it was for the seniors,” Reid said.

While Chartwell did what was required by law and their transition team was very compassionate, they could have done more, Reid indicated.

“This was the community coming in and saving the day because Chartwell didn’t do enough for the residents,” he said.

Many residents are asking for changes to provincial legislation for retirement residences. Moving the homes under the umbrella of Long-Term Care Act would better protect seniors and offer longer timelines to move, said Santaguida.

But there doesn’t seem to be any move from the provincial government to make a change.

“There is provincial legislation that exists, which governs the care, safety, and licensing of retirement homes by the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA) and the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA),” Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility’s director of communications Wallace Pidgeon told INsauga.com.

“The Retirement Home Act, 2010 (RHA) reinforces the Residential Tenancies Act’s rights and obligations between the retirement home and the resident, as landlord and tenant.”

Area MPP Nina Tangri said she worked to help the Chartwell residents.

“As MPP for Mississauga-Streetsville I have met directly with residents, their families, and representatives from Chartwell, the City of Mississauga, and the Region of Peel,” Tangri said.

“Along with the Minister of Seniors and Accessibility, we continue to take every possible step to support the residents impacted by the closure of the Chartwell Heritage Glen Retirement Residence.”

Lead photo: cottonbro studio

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