A census tract in Ottawa’s Somerset ward is home to the one of the largest number of dwellings in need of major repair in the city, according to an analysis of the 2016 census conducted by Statistics Canada.

A map appears below showing which census tracts in Ottawa are home to the largest number of dwellings in need of major repair. The darker the colour, the more dwellings in need of major repair. Pinpointed is the census tract in Somerset ward examined in this story.

Statistics Canada defines a dwelling in need of major repair as having “problems that comprised the dwelling structure or the major systems of the dwelling,” such as plumbing and electricity.

Shannon Forrester, who has lived in this portion of the Somerset ward on Argyle Avenue since 2016, has dealt with the major repair issue firsthand.

“We have problems with the foundation of the house, there’s holes in it,” she said. “You can see that it’s crumbling on the outside and in the basement you can see that it’s crumbling from the inside.”

A contributor to the large number of dwellings in need of major repair could be the age of many of the buildings in the area.

“As many as 70 or 75 per cent of the dwellings there are at least 40-years-old, if not older,” said David Hole, community liaison with the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study (ONS), a University of Ottawa-based project that analyzes data from 105 neighbourhoods in the city.

Another factor at play could be the large amount of high-rise apartments in the area, Hole said.

“If there are 400 households in one apartment building and they’re sick and tired of their elevator not working, then you’re going to have 400 reports of major repairs required with only one structure,” he explained.

About 60 per cent of dwellings in the Centretown neighbourhood which includes the census tract, are classified as high-rise apartments, over triple the Ottawa average, according to the ONS.

Shea Kiely, executive director of Housing Help, a provincially and federally funded organization that works to prevent housing loss, said the abundance of homes in need of major repair may be due to the cluster of rooming houses in the area. Rooming homes are buildings with four or more rooms that are rented out individually, where tenants share a common bathroom or kitchen space.

“Pretty much everyone (living) in them is on financial assistance, so often landlords aren’t putting a lot of money into these buildings,” she said. “I don’t want to stereotype all landlords … but they take in people on financial assistance and figure … they’re vulnerable and easy prey.”

Going forward, Kiely said the city’s by-law department must play a stronger role in ensuring repair orders are issued and completed, a department she said is severely understaffed. When landlords are uncooperative when tenants request repairs, they can turn to by-law to issue work orders.

“Landlords need to be held accountable,” Forrester added, and “the city needs to take more initiative … in restoring these types of buildings that hold so much cultural and historic significance to Ottawa.”

The Canada-wide census is conducted every five years by Statistics Canada. The next census will take place in 2021.