“Rodent feces, roach infestations, holes”: London ACORN holds gallery at Walnut Street building

Yesterday, more than 20 London ACORN and community members held a gallery demonstration in front of London Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH)’s 85 Walnut Street apartment building. The event aimed to raise awareness regarding the safety and conditions of units in LMCH, which ranked second in London ACORN’s “Slumlord awards” last month.

“There are a lot of issues going on at London housing buildings,” said Sharon Villeneuve, an ACORN member and resident at 85 Walnut Street. “A lot of pest control issues, maintenance issues, safety issues, and they’re not being addressed.”

“They’re refusing to have meetings that we have requested. That’s why we’re here today, because that seems to be the only way they will listen to us.”

Villeneuve has found that 85 Walnut Street has been able to access more support due to their tenant association and ACORN’s advocacy, but fears that many other LMCH buildings don’t have this same luxury. “They have no support whatsoever, and they’re on their own dealing with this.”

London ACORN put out a request to their community so that anyone in these buildings could share photos of the issues they have been dealing with. The result was a gallery of pest issues, rodent feces, building hazards, and more.

One poster had images highlighting accessibility issues, and concerns relating to balconies. 

“That ramp does not meet proper standards, that bar is way too low.” said Villeneuve. “One of our tenants here went out the door in a scooter. It jumped that bottom bar, and there’s nothing in between — she was hanging over that railing stuck.”

Another image shows crowded balcony that had a bicycle tire hanging off its edge.  “If that bike falls … that’s going to come down on somebody’s head.” said Villeneuve. “That’s an issue for security,  that’s not allowed. — They have rules and they’re not enforcing them.”

Other images highlighted in-unit safety concerns. One shows a unit with a stove that had no dials for the heat, which allegedly led to a tenant receiving burns. Another image showed a carbon monoxide detector hanging off the ceiling next to a hole. “How is that so when we recently had an inspection?” said Villeneuve. “Why is that still not fixed?”

Nearly every poster had multiple images of cockroaches, and rodent feces. One showed  an oven fan covered in rodent feces.

“This beautiful exhibit that you’ll see is grounded in our preliminary findings from our own LMCH tenant survey.” said Villeneuve, further explaining a survey the organization conducted. “We have only door knocked abut 1/10th of this building.”

ACORN’s LMCH tenant survey found that 89 per cent of tenants reported pest issues in the past 5 years with 32 per cent currently dealing with unresolved pest issues. 75 per cent of tenants reported their pest issues to London housing, but survey respondents said the repairs would take weeks or months to be resolved.

In LMCH’s 2025 Asset Management Plan, building infrastructure was graded on a Facility Condition Index (FCI) scoring system, with results categorized as “Very Good,” “Good,” “Fair,” “Poor,” or “Very Poor.”

68% of buildings described in their portfolio are listed as poor or very poor. None of the 31 buildings assessed were graded as very good, which is defined as fit for the future.

85 Walnut Street is graded as fair, which is defined as requiring attention. 

“If this is fair, what are the tenants living with in the 63% that are graded poor, or the 5% that are very poor, that are at risk or unfit for sustained service.” said Villeneuve. “These statistics are unacceptable.”

Matthew Senechal, LMCH’s communications manager offered insights into the FCI score. “There’s a number of things that could affect that score. Things like the quality of a parking lot can put you in a poor rating, if you have a roof that is 40 years old but still works and is not leaking… its considered past its life, it impacts what that score is.” Senechal explained.

“There’s not necessarily anything wrong with them, it just affects the score and brings the building into a poor condition.”

But ACORN argues that these scores uncover much worse than older materials. 

“That’s all true, but we’ve been in these apartments and we know that’s not what brings this [building] from good to fair,” said Jordan Smith, chair of ACORN’s Stoneybrook-Carling chapter. “It’s rodent feces, roach infestations, holes in the wall.” 

“The worst part is it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Villeneuve. “Maintenance response times are outrageous. I’ve been waiting more than 6 months to have my plumbing fixed. If the pipes burst — and its already leaking now — water damage would be devastating.”

Despite the increased attention ACORN has brought to the buildings issues, Villeneuve has been harassed by another tenant, who she alleged has access to confidential tenant information. “I’ve been threatened, I’ve been told that if I continue to take action on behalf of my neighbors and myself, I’d be blacklisted and it will affect my current and future requests for pest control and maintenance.” said Villeneuve. “I have reported it to several of the staff, they have not dealt with it — she is not staff.” 

“We would never blacklist her. That would never ever happen,” said Senechal, adding that there would be an investigation.

“This false narrative, this fear that tenants are going to be evicted if they tell us about their problems, we don’t evict tenants for reporting issues.” 

On one of the display boards in the gallery, ACORN had letters issued by two medical professionals detailing the issues a tenant is experiencing due to their housing environment at 85 Walnut St.

“We’re not unique in London when it comes to the state of social housing in the province,” said Senechal. “You have to look at it as a broader systemic issue.” Explaining that there were decades of social housing lacking funding before the province handed ownership of social housing to municipalities.

“Our message to the tenants is that we are getting better,” said Senechal, detailing repairs and upgrades that have been underway in the building over the past 5 years. “This building will be one of the last to get elevator improvements — when you’re working to fix a lot of those issues from a long time, its unfortunately just going to take a long time.” 

“I’m not going to say they’re not trying, but it’s a lot of us passing on information and it never goes anywhere.” said Villeneuve. “They have a reporting system, and we follow that reporting system, but it doesn’t go past those people, it’s not getting to where it needs to go. Only because of us doing this, that they actually came out again.”

The latter half of the statement was backed up by Senechal, who noted that LMCH has been at the building more to talk to tenants since ACORN’s first demonstration outside 85 Walnut St.

“We definitely understand the concerns and challenges that we’re seeing in the building.” said Senechal. “This one is 50 years old, it’s in dire need of major capital repair, things like roofs, systems like the electrical, elevators, all of that stuff has culminated into what we’re seeing today.” 

“Decades of funding not being put into [social housing], mostly from the province and the federal government many years ago,” said Senechal. “Since the city has taken it over 25 years ago, they’ve done a lot to put some money back into these buildings, specifically in the last 5 years.”

LMCH’s report identified that $100 million would be needed to bring the buildings into good condition. 

“LMCH is underfunded, and we have to draw attention to the lack of repair and the neglects by any means necessary,” said Smith. “We’re not here to be antagonistic and just to shame LMCH.”

Villeneuve echoed this statement. “You say you can’t do this maintenance and these repairs because you don’t have enough money. You need to prove to the city you need more money. If we prove that there is a need for the money, that’s gonna help you get money from the city to do the repairs — we’re trying to work together instead of against each other.”

“We feel there is a place for [ACORN] — we’re not stopping them” said Senechal, but he insisted that tenants should talk to them directly. “We need tenants to talk to us, we recognize having a group like ACORN, but unfortunately we have to talk to tenants directly. We can’t speak to ACORN for privacy reasons.”

Smith doesn’t agree, arguing, “That is the same kind of rhetoric that bad landlords use to not meet with organizers.”

“The tenants are the ones that involved us in the first place. Those tenants have asked ACORN to come in and help to represent on their behalf.” said Smith. “They have a right to organize, they have a right to protect themselves, and they have a right to come together as a community, not just as individuals.”

“We need LMCH to be honest with us and to come to the table and let us know where the challenges are and the barriers are so we can help.”

After the gallery showing, London ACORN members showed their survey results to Senechal and discussed a pathway to a meeting between ACORN and LMCH.