The pictures are shocking: a bare, stained mattress, the floor covered in grime and dirt.
A provincial health order deemed the apartment “unfit for human habitation,” yet it was where 59-year-old Larry Engbert had been living for years.
In August, his suite in the downtown MacDonald Lofts was sealed off and condemned. The AHS Public Health Order confirmed just how bad it was in Suite 108, along with several others in the building.
There were cockroaches and a bedbug infestation; an accumulation of feces, toilet paper and other waste next to the toilet.
Building Manager Dave Martyshuk said the shocking living conditions show how the city is ignoring what he calls the “hard to house.”
“I often wondered if my on-site manager would walk into his unit and find him dead. He was living in deplorable conditions.”
It was clear Engbert, who relied on a walker and was suffering from addiction issues, needed help. Martyshuk said he searched the city for an assisted living bed, but when he couldn’t find one, he moved the tenant to another clean unit in the building.
When asked if he was apprehensive to do that, Martyshuk said: “I was more apprehensive about evicting him, putting him out on the street. He wouldn’t have survived a week out there.”
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Martyshuk lobbied the provincial government for extra funding to provide daily care and he was successful. Seven-hundred-and-fifty dollars a month now helps pay a neighbour of Engbert’s to clean his apartment and help do his laundry.
“I knew there were problems down there,” Engbert said. “I didn’t realize how bad it was.”
More than three months later, Engbert is healthier and happier.
“I take care of myself,” he said. “When I was downstairs, I didn’t care.”
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Engbert’s new suite is tidy and clean. His neighbour washes his dishes and is paid to wash walls and the floor – everything Engbert is unable to do with a walker.
Martyshuk said Engbert is a testament to what happens when daily living supports are provided. He is frustrated and said many other tenants in his building need the same kind of help.
“The city has denied responsibility for this.”
The mayor said it’s not the city’s job.
Don Iveson said the city has housed 6,000 homeless people in the past eight years, but said there is not enough permanent supportive housing in Edmonton.
“It’s the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to actually ending homelessness.”
Iveson said the city is standing by, ready to provide land for more full-time supportive housing, but it’s up to other levels of government to build and provide care.
“We really need the province to step up with the operating dollars for these supportive housing units with wrap-around services for people.”
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Martyshuk doesn’t see it that way. He said private landlords like himself can help provide care until more housing is built.
“This is the perfect alternative. Just because we don’t have enough assisted living beds doesn’t mean we don’t need them.”
Without someone checking in on tenants and helping them with their day-to-day chores he fears other tenants will be forced back on the street or worse.
“They’re dead in their bed.”
That could have happened to Larry Engbert.
Now he is taking pride in his home and himself.
“My house is clean, my dishes are done. When I go to cook everything is there.”
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