Displaced tenants from Little River apartment fire living with family and friends

Some residents of an east Windsor apartment building, who were displaced after a fire, are now living with family and friends until they can return home.

It's been less than two months since nearly 100Little River tenants were forced to leave the buildingafter their apartment, near Lauzon Road and Little River Road,caught fire.Many were left struggling to look for a place until the building reopens, with onefamilyfacingthe starkpossibility of homelessness.

CBC News spoke with some tenants who say they are temporarily living with others untilthey can find an affordable place to rent month-to-month or move back in next year.

Several residents dropped by the building on Wednesday to pick up a small gift from FirstOnSite, the company restoring the building.

One resident,Mohammed Kahnafer, said he'seager to find out when he can go back home.

"It hasn't been easy or fun at all, but I've been staying with a sister, renting out her basement from her. It's been a little tough," he said, adding that he's not sure how long he can stay with his sister and that he's been struggling to find an affordableplace to rent.

"It's pretty hard to find a place in Windsor right now. No vacancies at all," he said. "It's very expensive to find a place and you can't find one without a lease for a minimum of a year."

Tenants are expected to move back within six to eight months, which isn't long enough for them to sign a year-long lease to another place, according to another tenantVicki Sinclair.

"Try and come up with first and last month's rent and then have to sign a lease.Nobody wants to sign because we don't know when we're going to be back in here. You don't want to be stuck in two leases," she said.

Sinclairsaid she's fortunate to be staying with her parents rent-free and saving up to buy a house, adding thatthe city's housing market is "ridiculous."

• Windor's real estate market is the hottest in Canada, with housing prices increasing 17 per cent in the third quarter of 2020.

Tania Hornick says she's also fortunate she and her children are able tolivewith loves ones until the building reopens.

"I'm blessed with awesome friends and family. So we've been living in the county with them and it's working out really good. I mean, it's inconvenient. It's a bit of a drive, but it'll be great when the apartment's back and we're close. But for now, it's working out very well," she said.

Hornick said she wouldn't know where to she live if she didn't have family support.

Charles Banham, the branch manager of the restoration company'sWindsor location, said he understands the difficulty tenants might begoing through. He said the company wanted to show its appreciation to them by givingthem a$50 gift card.

"With the loss being so close to Christmas, we wanted to try and give back to the to the community and hand out a gift card to them to support them, at least a little bit as best as we can from the start of the loss," he said.

The building is in its early stages of restoration,Banham said.

Building set to reopen by next year

"We've emptied the units and we're currently putting the roof back on to a large section of the middle of the roof. They're burnedcompletely through. So we're just now building that back. And then once that's completed, then we can start working on the interior," he said, adding that everyone should be able to move back in sometime next year.

"I'm just not sure exactly what time next year that will be," he said.

Tenants hope that's sooner rather than later.

"I miss seeing everybody. I'm kind of hoping we're back by the summertime," Sinclair said.