The Federation of Montreal Co-ops has stepped in to help those displaced by the sinkhole in Griffintown.
Thirteen people lost their homes, demolished after the hole that appeared next to a construction site rendered their building unsafe.
Half of the building was torn down on Sunday night.
Insurance won't cover the damage because it has deemed the hole an act of God, and the housing co-op where people lived is responsible for tearing down the rest of the building, removing the debris, and making sure everything is safe.
Now the city has stepped in to say it will cover the cost of three things: finishing the demolition; removing the debris; making sure that the rest of the structure is secure.
The Federation of Montreal Co-ops will find an engineer to examine the rest of the building that is standing, and to determine if it is structurally sound or if it will need to be demolished. That determination must be made by Friday.
The Federation has also said that the residents, who have been staying in hotels or with families for several days, will be able to find housing at another co-op in Griffintown, although the rent will likely be more than they were paying before.
“They just have to go through the process of being accepted and everything will be fine. They might be in the co-op next week,” said Louis-Philippe Myre of the Intermunicipal Federation of Housing Cooperatives of Metropolitan Montreal (FECHIMM).
In the meantime the city has said it will try to determine if the construction crews that have been working in the area are responsible for the damage.
“There have been ups and downs. I still feel the injustice in all of this,” said Guylaine Mayer a resident of the co-op. “I really need help and I got some help, because I was really at the end of my rope.”
Cause is everything
Bigger questions surrounding responsibility and cause with take time to answer.
“What an insurer will look at is the apparent cause of the incident,” said Pierre Babinsky of the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
“It seems the co-op’s insurer is seeing a shifting of soil as the primary cause for the damages, which is not something that is covered in home insurance in Quebec,” he said.
If it's determined the condo development set to be built next to the co-op or the city in any way led to the sinkhole, the crack in the structure or any shifting soil, the co-op could take legal action.
Problems began in March
The problems with the Ste. Anne Co-op first cropped up in March when a sewage pipe broke and water rushed into a hole that was being excavated for a condominium.
The sidewalk collapsed, and then a sinkhole opened up, creating a crack in the co-op's wall on April 1.
Over the following week the crack widened, and on Saturday April 8 the residents were ordered to evacuate their homes immediately, without a chance to grab anything other than what they were wearing. One woman had to leave behind an urn containing her husband's ashes.
The following night crews demolished the building, and a construction worker searched through the rubble to locate the missing urn.
