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While Ventullo lost his fight to keep the apartment he had lived in for more than two decades, the local councillor’s office says a nearby resident has taken him in while waits for a permanent home.

“I can confirm that Isidoro has secured temporary housing in a private residence and currently remains in the Little Italy community,” saidÌýAndrew Greene, chief of staff to Coun. Dianne Saxe (Ward 11, University-Rosedale).Ìý

It’s not a permanent solution but it will give Ventullo a “respite for the moment,” said Greene, who said Saxe’s attempts to bring attention to the situation led to a homeowner coming forward to help.

The councillor’s office and city staff are working with Ventullo to find him a place of his own in the neighbourhood, according to Greene, either at market rates or in a rent-geared-to-income unit.Ìý

What Ventullo thinks about those options isn’t clear. He has disconnected his phone, and the Star couldn’t reach him for comment Saturday.Ìý

Greene said the councillor’s office has heard from people in the neighbourhood who say Ventullo has been a “staple of that community for decades,” and was a regular sight at the local coffee shop or talking with seniors in the park.

“And when you take people like that out of community you just start to unravel the tapestry that is the community itself,” said Greene, who said “the outpouring of support” for Isidoro has been “tremendous,” with politicians at other levels of government offering assistance, and concerned residents setting up a GoFundMe campaign.Ìý

Ventullo’s ordeal in losing his apartment has “really taken its toll on him,”Ìýaccording to his friend Erin Leslie.Ìý

“He couldn’t sleep, he was stressed to the max,” said Leslie, a Canada Post worker who met Ventullo while delivering his mail and struck up a friendship.Ìý

She said her sense is that he feels let down by the fact he couldn’t keep his home, despite the intervention of politicians and support from regular citizens.

“He told me, ‘I’ve not done anything wrong’,” she said.

Leslie said the best-case scenario for Ventullo, who uses a cane, would be to find an apartment in Little Italy that’s on the ground floor so he “can retain his dignity and his independence and get in and out without help.”Ìý

“Once he has that in place, then he’s going to be reinvigorated and hopefully he can enjoy the rest of his life.”Ìý

As the Star has previously reported, provincial officers came knocking on Ventullo’s door Friday, July 4 to enforce an eviction order. His landlord’s son sought the eviction so that he himself could move in to help support his father, according to court documents. That rationale was challenged by the office of local MPP Jessica Bell however, which in a submission to the Landlord and Tenant Board said the eviction was being carried out “in bad faith.”

The landlord’s son didn’t return a request for comment Saturday.Ìý

Ventullo fought the order for two years at the board and in the Superior Court of Justice, but the eviction was upheld.Ìý

Leslie worried that Ventullo’s case isn’t an isolated incident, and that other vulnerable renters have been kicked out with nowhere to go.Ìý

“It happens often and nothing’s done about it,” she said.

In a statement, Saxe said there are “enormous holes in the social safety net,” as demonstrated by “enormously long” wait-lists for social housing and other services. She said the city, which has fewer resources that the higher levels of government, “cannot fill those holes.”Ìý ÌýÌý

With files from Mahdis Habibinia