Home no more: Some N.S. homeowners have nowhere to live after post-tropical storm Fiona

Frustration is mounting in Nova Scotia’s Colchester County, where some residents have no place to live after post-tropical storm Fiona irreparably damaged their homes.

Diana Calder-Boutilier is one of many residents who were impacted by the storm. She has a tarp on her roof in an effort to keep water out after shingles were ripped clean off her house.

But it wasn’t enough.

“Then we ended up with no power for weeks, which causes the mould to set in,” says Calder-Boutilier.

Calder-Boutilier says it’s not safe for her family to live there, so she, her husband, and her two young daughters have been couch-surfing.

Starting in a week, they will be staying in an Airbnb, which will cost $4,000 a month. Her insurance will cover it for about a year, so she’s hoping the house will be fixed by then, but she’s not sure that will happen in light of supply and labour shortages.

After trying to get help from the Red Cross, she says she only got a call back three weeks after the storm.

“I think the Red Cross should have been set up Day 1 in the Truro area. There’s a lot of people that just weren’t getting the response from them, me included,” says Calder-Boutilier.

Helping those left homeless by Fiona is now Colchester County’s biggest challenge, according to the county’s mayor.

“Finding a place to live, whether it’s a bed and breakfast, or a hotel, or an apartment, or a bedroom in somebody’s home, is practically non-existent. We’ve got a less-than-one-per-cent vacancy rate, and it’s a really big challenge for people who are displaced,” says Mayor Christine Blair.

Blair says the municipality has been trying to help connect residents with the Red Cross to facilitate aid.

“Recognizing that our jurisdiction is very limited, but we can speak on their behalf,” she said.

Area resident Serena Lewis is also out of her home because of the storm.

“One of the calls that I had suggested that I could go to Sydney,” says Lewis.

“I've also been trying to connect with the Red Cross for help finding a place to live with no luck.”

Lewis is a grief counsellor who helped area residents after Nova Scotia’s mass shooting in April 2020. She says the post-Fiona response is falling short.

“I keep asking the question, why are we not co-ordinating? Why is this not trauma-informed? Because this has been a serious, serious loss to a lot of people,” she says.

Lewis says her home will likely not be salvageable, as mould has set in there too.

She wrote a letter to the Red Cross and officials at various levels of government, sharing her concern about the lack of communication and coordination in the post-Fiona response.

In the letter, Lewis explains she registered for assistance with the organization Sept. 28, and has called for updates weekly, “with absolutely no progress to date.”

“The onus for consistent communication ought to be reflected through the CRC, the impacts of having to call repeatedly for status, information and long-term planning ought not to rest on the person affected, we have more than enough to be dealing with during this time. I have been told repeatedly I will hear from people, and then I hear nothing,” she writes.

Due to the volume of registrations, the Red Cross is now only taking aid registration by phone is to try to streamline the process.

Bill Lawlor of the Canadian Red Cross acknowledges finding housing for people who need it is challenging, but says the organization is working on it, and anyone who needs long-term housing that hasn’t contacted them should do so.

“And each and every day we will continue to build our capacity to provide support and improve support to people who need it most,” says Lawlor.

Lawlor says the Red Cross has distributed $14.7 million in relief money to households throughout Atlantic Canada so far. He says, in Nova Scotia, 3,000 households have received some sort of financial assistance to date.

“I just wish there was more things in place,” says Calder-Boutilier.

She knows she, like others, won’t be back home anytime soon.

The Red Cross is opening a mobile office in Amherst, N.S., for one day to help residents of Cumberland County who may qualify for financial aid. But when asked if it would open one in Colchester County, Lawlor would only say the Red Cross continues to assess where resources are needed.