For the past few weeks, Ariel Lukaniuk says she and her partner have been sleeping in their second bedroom.
That’s because her row house in Toronto’s east end is connected to a building going under renovations two doors down, where raccoons have infiltrated the walls and made their way over to her bedroom wall. She says a family of them has been living there ever since, scratching and screaming through the night.
On top of that, her dog is frightened by the noise and barks at the walls through the wee hours.
“It sounds like a horror movie,” Lukaniuk said. “It’s psychotic, the sounds all night, and I can’t sleep.”
Lukaniuk says she’s been trying to get the city and the neighbouring building owner to remove the animals for weeks, but they haven’t shown any urgency.
Video shows raccoons in Toronto woman’s bedroom wall
She says she contacted the city through 311 about three weeks ago, asking them to remove the animals and ensure her neighbours — a housing non-profit — cut off access to the walls at the renovation site. Despite assurances that the problem is being addressed and multiple emails, she says the raccoons are still there. And she’s fed up.
“Every time you think they’re helping, it’s just like, snail pace,” she said. “I’m just really tired.”
Lukaniuk says she first contacted the city about the problem on May 13 and was told staff would look into it.
After emailing back and forth over the next 10 days, she says her caseworker told her the city still hadn’t contacted the building owner. So Lukaniuk says she called them herself to ask what they could do.
The building under renovation, located on Main Street near Gerrard Street E., is owned by Community Circle LandTrust (CCLT), a non-profit housing provider. CCLT took over the building from Toronto Community Housing Corporation in 2022 to turn it into affordable housing.
During renovations this spring, the back wall on the ground level was completely removed for several days, allowing raccoons access to the inner walls of the row housing, Lukaniuk says.
CCLT CEO Alia Abaya says both the city and Lukaniuk contacted the non-profit on May 23. On May 24, the back wall was sealed and a pest control company was contracted to install a trap on the property, which was done on May 26.
On May 27, Abaya says the trap was still empty and CCLT had a roofer check for other entry points. The roofer installed a one-way door at a possible entry to keep the raccoons from coming back.
Two days later, the trap hadn’t caught any raccoons and it was removed, she says. CCLT then issued a work order on June 2 to set a new trap and install one-way doors in between the attics of the properties, which Abaya expected to be completed that day.
“While we can appreciate that it’s challenging for our neighbours that we have not had success in catching the raccoons yet, we are working diligently to address the situation,” Abaya said in an email.
Lukaniuk says nothing’s changed and the noise is beginning to impact her work as well as her sleep. She’s worried the one-way door installed by the roofer has trapped the raccoons in the walls, saying she hasn’t seen them leave since it was put in and the scratching and screaming has intensified.
She’s worried the raccoons could die in her walls, or chew a wire and start a fire.
But the city won’t adequately respond to her concerns, she says, or allow her to hire her own pest control since the problem originates on another private property.
“They just keep saying the same thing: the situation is being addressed by [Circle Community LandTrust]. It’s not being addressed,” she said. “They’re just like a robot.
“It’s super frustrating and super exhausting.”
In an email, spokesperson Shane Gerard said the city “is aware that the property owners have taken steps since the complaint was initially addressed with them to resolve the concern.”
“The City will continue to investigate to determine and ensure compliance with the applicable City bylaws,” he said.
