Single mom refuses to leave Regent Park building slated for demolition

Watch above: Cindy Pom finds out why Candice McGowan is refusing to leave her building. 

TORONTO – Candice McGowan is the last person left in a Toronto Community Housing building that she refuses to move out of until she has somewhere else to go.

She’s waiting for the TCHC to find her a new home.

The building at 14 Blevins Place near Dundas Street and Sumach Street was supposed to be prepared to be demolished Monday.

But contractors have been moved to another building because McGowan, concerned she has nowhere else to go, refuses to leave.

“Right now I don’t have a Plan B because it’s not my obligation to find something,” she said in an interview Monday. “I didn’t do anything wrong to be up against the tribunal in the first place, so right now I’m not making a second plan.”

She’s been fighting eviction since February 2013.

According to the TCHC, McGowan is a resident who is “no longer in good standing.” Last year, guns were found in her apartment though she faced no charges and claims they were her then-boyfriend’s and she had no idea.

Since then, she’s refused to pay her full rent, for what she says, are damages that have never been fixed.

As a result, the TCHC is refusing to relocate her while a new building is constructed on the site of her current home.

“It bothers me a lot to know that I’ve been victim, and have been victimized and have to fight this through the system,” she said. “Really people are just judging me, and pre-judging me and they don’t really know the issue behind the scenes.”

The two sides have been talking via email, and TCHC officials they are working to set up a possible meeting with McGowan.

It would cost the TCHC approximately $10,000 each day to delay demolition. But crews have been moved off site to other projects to avoid the extra cost.

– With files from Cindy Pom