Much-needed repairs at an aging Toronto Community Housing building once expected to begin in November are now behind schedule, a failure the housing provider blames partly on the little-known complexities of the roofing industry.

“Work is to start (at the) beginning of January,” a TCHC spokeswoman, Lisa Murray, said in an email last week. “Apparently in the roofing trade many of the guys who do the work are casual rather than full-time employees and so take time off in December as holidays close in.”

The Star reported in August on persistent maintenance problems at 58 Grenoble Dr., where tenant Joyeux Hendrickson said a leaky roof had plagued his family for years.

Mould grew in the unit's bathroom, and Hendrickson said squirrels had entered his home through the roof and ceiling.

In late October, Murray said via email that a request for proposals “for a roofing design consultant was issued on August 10.” A purchase order had been issued to the winning consultant.

“Dependent on weather conditions, work to replace the roofing is planned to commence in November,” Murray said.

On Dec. 3, Murray said the Vendor Awards Committee had met to review procurement records, “but their meeting date was such that it’s caused the work schedule to fall behind a couple of weeks.”

“There is a meeting with the roofer tomorrow to start the work,” Murray added.

She said that, if weather permits, the repairs would be “at most four weeks later than originally planned,” noting other aspects, such as securing a vendor for roofing plans and ordering supplies, have been on schedule.

With the work now pushed back until 2016, Murray says roof joints were sealed at locations where leaks were reported. Murray has also said that tenants have been informed that they can be moved temporarily until the repairs are completed.

The Star visited Hendrickson's home in August after viewing a video that showed water falling from the ceiling in the unit's foyer. The paint was peeling off the walls in large flakes, the ceilings were visibly damaged and the family used various containers to catch the water that dripped from the ceilings.

Given the long-standing issues and repairs that Hendrickson describes as inadequate patch jobs, he is underwhelmed by TCHC's pledge to repair the roofs. Hendrickson said workers had been to his home several times since the Star's story, but the leaks continue.

For years, Hendrickson said, TCHC “didn't do anything.”

“It's irrelevant now,” he said recently. “It's too late.”

Experiences vary within the development.

“I haven't had a roof issue yet,” said tenant Lyndsay Brown. “Thank God. Knock on wood.”

Brown pointed out a blotchy patch of ceiling on the first floor of the unit she shares with her 14-year-old son, where water had dripped from the second floor for several months.

Brown also said problems in her second-floor bathroom meant the room needed a complete overhaul, not the minor repairs that had been made.

“They do pretty well unless it’s expensive,” Brown said of TCHC’s approach to maintenance.

Local Councillor Jon Burnside laid some responsibility with TCHC, but said the state of the provider’s buildings is largely the result of government inaction and indifference.

“Various governments have proclaimed how much they care, but it was all hollow words,” said Burnside, who believes the city stands alone in its commitment to funding TCHC repairs.

“We all know the city doesn’t have the capacity to do it alone.”

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Murray said via email that TCHC was “established . . . without adequate capital repair reserves.” TCHC has completed thousands of repairs since 2013, Murray said.

“In 2016 Toronto Community Housing has allocated a record $250 million to the capital repair program, which will fund some 18,000 capital repairs to benefit 40,500 of our 60,000 households,” Murray wrote. But completing repairs and working through a lengthy repair backlog will require federal and provincial funding.

Hendrickson has filed paperwork with the province’s Landlord and Tenant Board.

A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 12.