Advocates say more wraparound services are needed if situations like the mass eviction of the Adanac apartment building on Sargent Avenue want to be avoided.
One day after the deadline to vacate the Adanac Apartments passed, forcing dozens of vulnerable residents on the street, Coun. Cindy Gilroy said people with mental health and addictions issues need more supports if they are transitioning into housing from being homeless.
“People are not going to stay housed unless you have the supports that are needed inside those buildings,” she said.
Residents of 741 Sargent Ave. were ordered to leave the Winnipeg West End apartment building due to the safety of the building. According to the notice, the building violated numerous fire codes and there were safety issues identified during its last inspection.
The order was issued on Aug. 16 and gave residents just five days to vacate. However, some residents said they were not aware of the order until Monday and only had two hours to pack.
Gilroy said there’s been more than 540 calls for service to the building.
“This building was so unsafe people were actually choosing to stay unhoused rather than be living in those buildings.”
St. Boniface Street Links director Marion Willis said she doesn’t know where many people ended up after Monday’s final notice and doesn’t know when people will be able to come home.
“There’s a lot that needs to happen before people can reenter those suites. So there’s just a great deal of uncertainty for us as an organization working with these folks and even more uncertainty for the people that were tenants there,” she said.
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Willis said people living in a homeless encampment off Maryland Street found housing at the Sargent Avenue building and are now choosing to go back to living on the riverbank behind the Misercordia Hospital, but Willis wants to ensure it’s only temporary.
The director says there needs to be more collaboration between the city and community leaders to prevent people from becoming unhoused after evictions like this.
“The real piece to learn from this is that it’s one thing to house very high-risk people, but you can’t just house people and walk away,” she said.
Violations which led to the closure of the building — like no smoke detectors in suites — are because people who use drugs living in the rooms take them down out of a perceived danger they pose.
Willis also alleges some suites had their hydro meters removed by the Crown corporation after bills weren’t being paid.
“You never put your vulnerable clients in a position where you’re making them responsible, you know, to pay utility bills because they’re not going to get paid,” she said.
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said they’ve been working with the property owners of the Adanac Apartments for several months to address fire code violations, but conditions continued to deteriorate.
“Occupants’ safety was at risk and a vacate order was necessary,” an emailed statement to Global News said.
The WFPS said since 2019 six full-vacate orders have been issued in the city and another six partial vacate orders were issued for specific floors or areas of buildings.
Gilroy said she put forward a motion at city hall to enact a licensing regime which would see higher codes for buildings that house vulnerable people to ensure health and safety of residents.
The building in question would be mandated to have a higher code under proposed legislation because most tenants are on Employment Income Assistance, and property owners have a legal responsibility to maintain buildings to the city’s Fire Prevention bylaw, the WFPS said.
The Daniel McIntyre councillor also wants to see the province step in to ensure there’s adequate supports on site.
“We need to make sure that we’re, above all, making sure these places are safe, which is what the city is doing now. We need the province to step in with the supports to keep them housed,” Gilroy said.
Willis agrees, saying the mass exodus could have been avoided with 24/7, on-site support for tenants.
In an emailed statement, Families Minister Rochelle Squires said the province is working with the city and are helping with a transition into alternative housing.
“In alignment with our government’s homelessness strategy, we will continue to collaborate with our partners both internally and in the community to ensure displaced residents of the Adanac are provided timely, holistic, and supportive services,” the statement read.
— with files from Rosanna Hempel
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