Tenants struggle after forced evacuation from condemned 22 Evans Ave.

Two former tenants of 22 Evans Ave. in Halifax say the forced and sudden move from their apartments was a chaotic upheaval that's left them suffering financially and mentally six weeks on, and led them to slip back into drug addiction.

"Your whole life has been torn apart and you feel violated," said Steven Falshaw, 50, about the day in late September a police officer knocked on his door and told him he had to move immediately. 

"I just said, 'This is preposterous, how do you move in one hour?'" he said, and summed it up as "really mentally draining and emotionally hurtful."

The 12-unit apartment building in Fairview, owned by George Tsimikilis, was condemned by the city and ordered evacuated Sept. 27.

A complaint about the property in July led to inspections by city officials, and a crackdown due to fire code violations and an infestation by rodents, bed bugs and cockroaches.

Falshaw, who lived on the top floor, said he and his neighbours kept that floor clean and safe. In the hasty move, he grabbed photos and other family mementos, but had to leave other items such as stone and wood carvings and furniture. 

"It was like if the building was on fire, just scurry and grab the most valuable things you can think of."

Tenants were able to return to their apartment a few days after the move to retrieve items, but Falshaw said he discovered his possessions damaged or missing, including $3,200 he said he had stashed in a book.

It was money he made over seven months by panhandling and selling refinished furniture and carvings. He was saving for a van to help him find work. 

"I was just in a panic, it was just grab what you can. I wasn't thinking because it's put away," he said about forgetting to grab the cash.

Like many of the other tenants, Falshaw receives income assistance from the Department of Community Services.

The department has set him up with a new apartment in Spryfield and helped him with moving expenses.

But he said tenants' needs, such as health problems, weren't taken into account when they were ordered out of 22 Evans Ave. He said he has a hip injury, ADHD, dyslexia and an addiction to opioid painkillers. 

At the time of the move, Falshaw said he was curbing his addiction and had managed to go one week without abusing hydromorphone pills. He said he has now relapsed and is injecting opioids.

"It was like, 'Wow, I'm on my way, I'm on my path,' and boom they pull the rug out from underneath you," he said. "Then bam, you find yourself using again, and it's like, 'Man, why did this happen?'"

His neighbour, Kim Brown, is also struggling. The 46-year-old had been living at 22 Evans Ave. since she was released from prison in 2009. Like Falshaw, she said she is missing possessions, cash and has started abusing Dilaudid painkillers again. 

She was moved to a ground-floor apartment in Spryfield by Community Services but refuses to live there because it's a basement unit and she said she's agoraphobic. She's been couch-surfing for six weeks and said she feels like she's homeless.

The move "destroyed everything within my spirit, it shattered my soul," Brown said.

Brown said she has mental health issues, and living in Spryfield makes it difficult for her to attend the methadone clinic and visit her mother in Halifax.

"Jail right now would probably be better for me because if not, I will probably end up hurting myself."

A spokesman for the Department of Community Services said staff are aware this situation can be "very stressful."

In an email statement, Brian Taylor said he couldn't speak to specific cases, but said clients were provided financial support for damage deposits, rent and moving expenses. 

"And, if any of our clients expressed interest in, or a need for, assistance with addiction rehabilitation to their caseworkers, they would certainly work with that person to refer them to the appropriate supports," Taylor said by email.