Christmas Day Treat Planned for Residents Displaced by Fire, Seniors and Single-Parent Families

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed       Samantha Beech who has been displaced by the November 15 fire at 235 Gosford Blvd., Toronto

It has been over a month since a fire ripped through several floors of a 15-storey apartment building in Toronto displacing 700 residents, including Jamaican Samantha Beech.

The fire, which broke out in an apartment on the eighth floor of 235 Gosford Boulevard in North York on November 15, claimed the life of an occupant of the apartment and injured six others, damaging apartments on several levels above.

Beech’s apartment, 908, was directly above the one in which the fire started and she is bewildered.

“It’s not easy, it is not easy at all, like everything is just rushed. There is no comfort zone, nothing like that. It’s a very inconvenient life that me and my family are going through because we have no other choice right now,” says Beech, who is from May Pen, Clarendon and the mother of a 19-month old baby girl and 18-year-old son. 

She is grateful that friends paid for her to stay at the nearby Four Points hotel and to her relatives outside of Canada for their help.

A cousin who lives in the United States saw her WhatsApp post about the fire, which was also seen by that cousin’s sister in Antigua. That sister’s spouse was here in Canada and rented an Airbnb for Beech and her family.

“Thank God, God bless them. I didn’t know the guy or anything,” says Beech who has lived at 235 Gosford Blvd. since December 2016.

She has maintained her contact with the Red Cross which she says has played a big role in her life.

“That’s where I go and eat and stuff,” she said, noting that her baby was very sick during this time and the Red Cross sent her to the Staybridge Suites Toronto hotel where many of the displaced residents are staying.  

Beech said there is a lack of communication from the management of the building and many residents share the same view.

She said the property manager of 235 Gosford and the superintendent came to the hotel and handed out flyers informing them of the apartments that were going to be cleaned but hers was not one of them.

Beech was able to enter her home recently but her clothes reeked of smoke and everything in it is damaged.

Ronkay Management Inc., the property management company, said everyone who requested housing has been provided with temporary accommodation and those who chose to find their own housing solution have received a transition payment equal to their December rent.

On a Facebook page set to provide updates it said many residents have asked what will happen in January.

“We are hoping to have many residents back into their suites sometime in the new year. We will continue to update everyone, to the best of our abilities, on timelines and scheduling. Those staying in accommodations provided by Ronkay Management will continue to be lodged at Staybridge, but will be required to pay rent including parking (the same as they paid in their apartment).

It said residents that found their own accommodations will not be required to pay rent to Ronkay Management Inc.”

“I’m badly impacted, it’s really traumatizing for me especially in this holiday season. I was looking forward to the Christmas and now this happened,” said Beech, noting as she spoke to the Gleaner while shopping that she was inside the Dollar Store and “just looking at the decoration and tears are running from my eyes because I know I don’t have a place to say it’s my home.”

She said there is nothing for her to create a Christmas tree for her baby and her son is taking the loss of their home very hard.

“It’s really tough, it’s tough; I can’t explain what my heart is going through,” says Beech whose mother lives in the UK and father in Winnipeg but she has no relatives in Toronto. 

Beech will be among several residents attending the Christmas dinner and treat at the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) on December 25 for single parent families, seniors and displaced residents of the 235 Gosford.

Photo contributed    Elaine Thompson, left, and Danae Peart, organizers of the Christmas Day Dinner and Treat at the Jamaican Canadian Association in Toronto

“I got to thinking about Christmas and how some people really don’t have a cheerful Christmas either because of lack of financial means or not having a family,” says Elaine Thompson, one of the organizers, who got the Black Business and Professional Association and JCA onboard.
She thought about the difficulty that some single mothers might experience to provide a toy or Christmas meal for their children at this time of the year.

In a conversation with her friend, Danae Peart, she chose an event on Christmas Day because everything tends to happen before that day. 

While they were planning, the fire happened at 235 Gosford Blvd. and so they decided to include the displaced residents in the holiday event.

Peart says people have been donating cash or kind but they also want to have toys for the kids.

“It’s going to be a three-course, sit-down dinner,” she said, noting that Chef Dwight Boswell, owner of Chalice Catering, Toronto and an executive chef, wants people to experience the food.
 They hope to have municipal representatives, politicians and celebrities “present to serve from behind the food stations as just a give back.”

Peart said they were strategic in the time that they chose, 1:00-4:00 p.m., “allowing people to still come by, give their service and also still go home and catch their family dinner.”
Thompson and Peart are promising music, food and gift-giving “and, hopefully, if for one day out of the year they can forget their troubles and forget their loneliness.”

[This story was published in the Christmas Feature in the North American Weekly Gleaner, December 19-January 1, 2019.]