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Kensington Manor shoring will take two weeks, timeline unclear for after

While the term “imminent collapse” may have been a bit too strong, the situation for Kensington Manor residents who have been evacuated is still very stressful and uncertain.

City of Calgary Safety Response Unit Supervisor Dennis Terhove said it will take two weeks to shore up the building after an engineer and city inspectors deemed it unsafe late Thursday afternoon.

“That will be only for the tenants to actually get back to their suites, obtain the items that they’ve left behind out, possibly move out if they’ve got new accommodations,” he said. “It will not be available for re-occupancy for quite some time after that.”

Terhove couldn’t elaborate on what “quite some time” means and it will ultimately be up to the engineer’s reporting on what will happen long-term.

In the meantime, residents who can’t stay with friends or family are contacting the Calgary Housing Company for other accommodations, after they were put up in a hotel by the building’s owners last night.

As reported Thursday, problems with the structure go back a year, specifically the stability of the balconies.

Terhove said what was discovered recently is a separate issue, but didn’t have much detail on why it took this long to discover the new issue.

“The building owners, it’s their responsibility to ensure the safety of the building,” he said. “That’s what we were looking at (the balconies), that’s what we were looking at, that was the permit, there was really no reason for us to go into the rest of the building.”

“Repair work can be quite lengthy,” he added. “I would assume that they didn’t to displace people as they were working.”

Terhove said it’s too early to say if the owners would face any sort of penalties and they don’t even know what the exact problem with the building is now, although a city spokesperson said Thursday, it had to do potentially with the floor slabs.

As for the City using the term “imminent collapse,” Terhove said that may have been a kneejerk reaction.

“Those weren’t my words, but I will say we reacted on the engineer’s concerns,” he said, adding the inspection that led to the evacuation was a routine one.

As of 4:30 p.m., Manager of Housing Services with the Calgary Housing Company, Greg Wilks, said they had received two calls from evacuees.

“We’re going to waive security deposits, we’re going to waive application feeds and we’re going to honour the current rent that the tenants pay,” Wilks said.

Terhove said it would ultimately be up to CHC to try and recoup any costs from the building’s owners, but Wilks said there’s no plans to do that.

Asked why the burden of reaccommodation is falling on the city and not the owners, Terhove said it’s a unique situation.

“We’re trying to do the best we can,” he said.

Resident Jon Mureta lives in the building and said he had heard about the structural issues with the balconies.

“But we didn’t expect to get kicked out of here, especially on 30 minutes notice,” he said.

Those interested in contacting CHC can call 587-290-1200, which is available 24/7.

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