Michael Lewis gestures toward a top corner apartment on 79-81 Duke St.

He called the brick, low-rise building in Durand home for five years until a fire broke out in one unit there Jan. 8.

"I loved it. It's a great neighbourhood. It's quiet and close to everything."

Ever since the blaze, the landlord has barred tenants from the 21-unit building, leaving them in a homeless limbo.

"I've got a lot of stuff," says Lewis, 51, who gets by on a disability pension. "Everything is in there."

He and others who lived in the building are fighting for compensation, access to their belongings and the right to return.

If they can't, they face slim odds in an escalating rental market driven, in part, by gentrifying investors and punctuated by renovictions. Many are on social assistance.

Lewis has stayed with a friend while others were put up in a hotel by the Red Cross and city. That support ended Friday, leaving some scrambling to stay off the street.

"I'm calling shelters," said Krystal Hill, 30, early Friday afternoon. "I'm doing everything I can."

Landlord Ergest Plaku told The Spectator he and a business partner — whose name is listed as Nicola Vescio in corporate documents and couldn't be reached for comment — had no choice but to block access to the building.

Plaku said the city ordered them to do so until an engineering report and testing clears it as safe for re-entry.

"We have the City of Hamilton saying nobody can get into the building. What are you going to do?"

John Lane, the city's manager of building inspections, explained it differently.

"In a nutshell, the building division has not prohibited occupancy for 79 Duke."

The city didn't order the Oakville-based landlord to erect a fence across the front of the building, either, Lane said.

After the blaze, the city issued two orders.

One deals with No. 81, the westerly half of the building, where a first-floor unit was ablaze. It bars access — only to that side — due to fire damage.

The other order applies to No. 79 and only requires studies to assess damage — not lock tenants out from that side.

Lane said a fire wall runs between the two sides of the structure.

"The fire wall seems like it did its job and kept the fire on the 81 side. However, as a (precaution), I guess we decided to issue an order for 79."

Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Shawn De Jager confirmed there was "no damage to 79," although the blaze caused "extensive damage" to 81.

Lane said the landlord submitted an engineering study earlier this week that found No. 79 structurally safe.

For Lewis, whose apartment is on the undamaged side, returning home is a matter of survival.

"I can't find a place in Hamilton for less than $1,000," he said, noting his rent was about $760 a month.

He argues the landlord wants him and other longer-term tenants out in order to charge higher rents to newcomers.

Plaku rejects that theory. "That's news to me."

He said the intention is to let the tenants back into the building if it's deemed safe.

But Stephanie Cox, a lawyer with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, contends the tenants' rights have been trampled.

Cox added the tenants — many of whom are on social assistance or working poor — are entitled to compensation.

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As well, she noted, all tenants in the building are entitled to retrieve their belongings, "which has been unreasonably denied."

Moreover, landlords are obliged to give 120 days' notice to end tenancies, affording tenants the right to return once any repairs are completed, or refuse to terminate their occupancy altogether.

Lewis said he's received no such notice. Hill said she signed a "waiver" to end her tenancy thinking repairs would take months. "I was just trying to move forward from this."

Plaku said he didn't know what notices might be required under the Residential Tenancies Act. "I don't know. I leave it all to my lawyer."

Hill, who was able to get her stuff out of 79, is upset she could no longer stay at the Admiral Inn at York Boulevard and Dundurn Street North.

"My main concern is that it's me and a bunch of people are homeless and shelters are full."

Hill said before her two-and-a-half-week tenancy on Duke Street, she'd fled an abusive relationship and stayed in a Burlington shelter.

By late Friday afternoon, she managed to find a shelter bed in Hamilton.

Hill, who also relies on a disability pension, said stable housing is crucial for her to move foward.

She has a young daughter and hopes to study culinary arts at Mohawk College. "It's super tough to go through all of that."

Lauren Marcoux, who also lived in 79, has been staying with a friend but says she's not able to be there for long.

Marcoux was in tears describing her predicament. "I have nothing. I have some clothes and blanket."

The 31-year-old, who splits a six-day work week between a pool hall and bar, said the experience has embittered her.

She has no desire to return to her Duke Street apartment of three-and-half years. She only wants her belongings back and compensation.

"This is the most unfair thing."

The search for another place has been dispiriting in Hamilton's rising rental market.

"It's just been ridiculous."

Correction: The article was updated Feb. 1 to correct the spelling of a name. Nicola Vescio is listed as one of the landlord business partners in corporate documents. The Spectator regrets the error.