KITCHENER — City bylaw officers, backed up by police, cleared out a deteriorating apartment building Monday, giving tenants just a few hours to pack up their belongings and leave.

As contractors boarded up the windows at 48 Weber St. W., neighbours cheered the action at an address they say has been plagued with drug problems and fire hazards for a long time.

The building's common areas were littered with human feces, blood, urine, syringes and other evidence of rampant drug use. But the problems at the former Berlin Palace go far beyond that — from substandard plumbing and electrical wiring to an ongoing "fire watch" issued by the fire department.

Shayne Turner, Kitchener's director of bylaw enforcement, said his staff used a rare emergency order to clear people out, believing the 85-year-old, 40-unit building is no longer safe to live in.

"We believe the conditions of the property have gotten to the point where they're not fit for human habitation," he said. "This is something that needed to happen, but it was not something that was done in haste. We don't take these actions lightly."

About a dozen tenants were loaded into vans and taxis and given rooms at a local hotel, but several more squatters who weren't paying rent were also found. Staff from local social services were at the building with bylaw officers, along with the humane society, making sure those evicted had a place to stay.

"Everybody that wants housing has been set up," Turner said. "There was a range of emotions this morning. Some understood it, but others took a while to process the information."

Some tenants said the building had been crumbling for a while. Diane Chorney, a tenant for three and a half years, said she hasn't had hot water for over a week, since her bathroom ceiling collapsed, and had resorted to boiling water.

Still, she wasn't expecting she'd be told to get out this week.

"This morning, I had a knock on my door," she said. "I opened it, and it was the cops. They said, 'you've got to be out in two hours. I said, 'Are you kidding?'"

Chorney said she only had time to pack up two bags and her purse. She was told she could come back later to gather up the rest of her belongings.

She hopes to get out of the building permanently, but needs her damage deposit back from the landlord first.

"It's been deteriorating for a while," she said. "It's always been 'we're going to fix it, we're going to fix it,' then they don't show up."

Turner said it's the first time since he started working for Kitchener 13 years ago that an emergency order was used to clear out an apartment building with multiple tenants. The owner must get the building up to code before the security barriers come down, he said.

Neighbours, meanwhile, said they hope it's the end of nightly parties, alleged drug dealing and alleged prostitution that made the building a magnet for complaints.

Ken Uhrig, 49, rolled up on a bicycle just as contractors were boarding up the building's bottom windows. Now homeless, he said he used to party with some tenants here.

"People would be coming in and out all the time, you didn't know who was who," he said. "There was dealers in here, trading bikes for dope, that kind of thing."

Uhrig said the real problem was a lack of affordable housing in Waterloo Region that leads homeless people to congregate at places like this.

But Michael Morgan, 60, said complaints about the building have been exaggerated. He's lived there for four years and found it to be a quiet and friendly place to live.

"I found it to be pleasant," he said. "I have a feeling this had more to do with fire safety."

The partner of the building's owner, Baltimore, Ont.'s Terry Good, was at the scene Monday but she declined to comment. Good did not respond to a request for an interview.

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