Out of home, out of insurance, out of luck for Nova Scotia flood victims

BEDFORD, N.S. — Kristi Thompson woke up to the sound of water running. Thinking a tap was leaking, she stepped out of bed and her foot splashed into about 30 centimetres of floodwaters.

From then on, it was a blur of activity as Thompson and her neighbours in their Bedford apartment building used shovels to push water out the door and a shop vac to suck up what they could. That was on July 21 when just about 300 millimetres of water fell on West Bedford in a short amount of time.

Since then, it’s been a rocky road.

“It’s really hard. I mean I have a little boy and I’ve had to throw things out he’s had since he was a baby — they were just mouldy and there was no way to save them,” she said. 

“It’s really stressful, It’s emotional and I think I’ve broken down crying a lot.”

It’s still a disaster. We’re still forced out of our homes.”

– Kristi Thompson

Now two months later, her insurance (she is one of the lucky tenants to have flood insurance) is about to run out and she’s at least three months away from moving back to her apartment. She said she can’t find any help for housing.

“Where’s the help?” she said. “I know with the (wild)fires there was assistance, housing assistance and stuff but what about the flood? It’s still a disaster. We’re still forced out of our homes. We may not have to rebuild like that, but it’s a different rebuild situation and we still have to rebuild.”

‘It’s exhausted’

Thompson and her son stayed in their soggy apartment for two nights before they moved out to a hotel, paid for by insurance. They stayed with family out of town for a while, but when school started up for her 10-year-old son, she needed to move back. They’re in an Airbnb in Bedford now, but that runs out at the end of the month and it costs about $6,000 for 25 days.

“You only have so much insurance,” she said. “With my insurance I’m using what I would get to replace my furniture and stuff to (pay for) my housing and it’s exhausted.”

A recent update from her building manager stated tenants won’t be able to return until December.

Pretty much everything she owns is ruined. She is applying for provincial disaster financial assistance to replace essential property losses like furniture and appliances, but it will take at least six to eight weeks for the application to be processed.

But there’s nothing for housing support, she said. Thompson said she and her neighbours have contacted Bedford Basin MLA Kelly Regan, the Red Cross, Community Services and the premier’s office. She’s coming up short on answers and help.

“There’s a bunch of people without housing and that’s a problem.”

‘Unable to get some help’

Regan said she can’t find any answers, either, for tenants who are out due to flooding.

“There’s really nothing that’s been done to help them. We’ve reached out to different departments, 311, 211 and we have been unable to get some help,” she said.

Many landlords that could help out in this type of situation in the past are just not doing short-term housing, she added.

Regan said only a few of the modulars offered to wildfire victims were used so she’s hoping they could be made available to flooding victims. The province offered $500 to people who had to evacuate due to the wildfires, which should be extended to people who are out of their homes due to flooding, she said.

“I know it happened in the summer, but I feel like the government hasn’t paid attention to the aftermath of what happened that night and the effects are lingering and for some families, they’re really serious,” she said. “Because we have a housing shortage right now, everything is made more difficult.”

Running out of options

Ahmed Ghanem knows just what that’s like. He also lives in that three-storey Bedford apartment building. He and his wife have three kids who have asthma and can’t be anywhere around mould.

He said he was offered another unit in an associated building but they would have had to sign a lease and permanently lose their two-bedroom unit for a one-bedroom — a tight fit for the family of five. So they had to move out into a short-term rental and like Thompson and her son, they are waiting for their apartment to be fixed.

“The insurance is covering, yes, but that’s because I pay a lot for my insurance,” he said.

They’ve run through about half of their coverage, he said, and now that the repairs are taking longer than they thought, they need to quickly find a new place to live for the next few months.

Ghanem said he has a neighbour whose insurance isn’t covering anything and the building management isn’t helping him at all.

“And he has kids,” he said, adding it feels like they are getting renovicted.

Provincial response

Krista Higdon, spokesperson for the province’s Municipal Affairs and Housing department,  said in an email Tuesday that four applications have now been approved for the modulars — one in Tantallon and three in Shelburne. Another application is being processed and the first units should be in place “in early fall.”

“We are contractually obligated to purchase 25 eventually. However, we pay for each unit once it’s satisfactorily installed,” she wrote. “Right now we are focused on the intended use of these modulars and we will monitor that.”

She did not respond to a question about the $500 relief payments to wildfire evacuees being applied to flood victims. She wrote that people might be eligible for federal relief but the disaster financial assistance program is directed at provinces and territories, (not individuals) which would distribute the funds.