Andrew McLean has received a two-week reprieve on an eviction caused by late disability payments from the provincial government. But he does not feel relieved.

“I’m totally stressed out,” says McLean, a 53-year-old construction worker who ended up on disability benefits due to a back injury.

McLean was to be evicted Monday, two weeks before his new apartment becomes available. He was spared the costs of a hotel in the meantime when, on Friday, a sheriff’s letter informed him the eviction date has been pushed back to April 7.

McLean says that doesn’t change the fact he is the victim of government bungling. He’s being thrown out of an apartment he loves, and forced to settle for a more expensive and less comfortable one, all because the province failed to issue cheques to the landlord on time.

“I don’t know why I have to lose the apartment and pay more rent for something I didn’t do,” McLean says in an interview.

McLean’s troubles regarding his one-bedroom apartment — in the Lawrence Ave. W. and Weston Rd. neighbourhood — began in January 2014. He says the rent portion of his Ontario Works social assistance cheque was being mailed directly to the landlord by the government.

But when he switched to the Ontario Disability Support Program, the bureaucracy involved meant the cheque got delayed. He found himself in front of the Landlord and Tenant tribunal and agreed with his landlord, Realstar Management, to pay his rent on time for one year.

McLean says he was then informed by the landlord that rent cheques from the government for July, September and October were also late.

McLean’s government caseworker blamed some of the delays on “glitches” with Ontario’s new welfare computer system, the Social Assistance Management System (SAMS). The $242-million system has been plagued by a long list of troubles, including overpaying thousands of recipients while underpaying others.

“The delay of the landlord receiving October’s payment is no fault of Mr. McLean,” the caseworker wrote in a letter dated last November. Ministry of Community and Social Services spokesperson Kristen Tedesco has, however, denied that SAMS was responsible for McLean’s eviction.

In a ruling, the Landlord and Tenant Board acknowledged that McLean was not to blame, but evicted him because the agreement for timely cheques to the landlord was broken.

McLean got help from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, which pressured the government and, according to a spokesperson, got the landlord to push back the eviction. Realstar did not respond to emails asking for comment.

A crowd-funding campaign has raised $1,276 for McLean so far. And McLean says he got $1,600 from the Housing Stabilization Fund, designed to prevent Toronto residents on welfare or disability payments from becoming homeless.

A Weston community group also found him a new apartment nearby on Trethewey Dr.

McLean is grateful for all the help. But he notes that monthly rent of $950 for his new one-bedroom apartment is $39 a month more than his current one. He also loses the convenience of elevators and central air conditioning. He’ll have to pay an extra $50 a month for a window unit — he’s scheduled for double bypass surgery soon, and expects he’ll want stay cool and breathe easy this summer.

“I wouldn’t mind staying right where I am,” he says. “I’ve got lots of friends in the building and if they don’t see me for a day or two they come and check on me. In this new place, I don’t know anybody.

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“I wish the whole thing would be resolved,” he adds. “This wasn’t my fault at all. I shouldn’t have to be moving.

“I don’t know why the government just doesn’t say, ‘OK, we’re at fault. We’ll call Realstar and straighten it out.’ ”