Residents leave Winnipeg apartment with anything they can carry following city order to vacate block
CBC News | Posted: August 21, 2023 10:03 PM | Last Updated: August 22, 2023
Failed fire inspection last week led to order to vacate Adanac Apartments on Sargent Avenue on Monday
Tenants at a Winnipeg apartment building that was ordered to close by 2 p.m. Monday because of fire safety issues have been making their way out, taking with them whatever they could carry.
Brandy Genaille said she's not sure what will happen next for her, as she walked out of her home of about a year pulling a pink suitcase behind her with one hand and holding her cat in a carrier with the other.
"They're trying to put us up in the homeless shelters, and then there's already homeless people out there," she said, adding she wouldn't be allowed to bring her cat to a shelter.
"I don't know what we're going to do, but we've got to try to find somewhere to go."
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service issued an order for the Adanac Apartments at 737 and 743 Sargent Ave. to be vacated by the Monday deadline following a failed fire safety inspection on Wednesday last week.
That order cited several fire code violations, including a fire alarm system that doesn't work, missing smoke alarms, inaccessible fire extinguishers and a blocked fire escape.
Residents said police and fire officials gave them two hours to collect their things on Monday, as a crew worked to board up the building and close up access to the fire escapes from the sidewalk.
Building still has 'unresolved deficiencies': city
Tenants hustled to try to get things up to code by the deadline, but the eviction is still happening, said Marion Willis, executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, an organization that has been working with people in the building.
Another inspection isn't scheduled until Wednesday, Willis said, lamenting what she called a "reactive" approach to issues that have largely been resolved since the inspection last week.
A city spokesperson said the building was re-inspected Monday morning and still had "a number of unresolved deficiencies" that the city is monitoring.
The building now has to remain unoccupied until the rest of the fire code violations have been corrected and the property has been approved to have people live in it again, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The fire prevention branch has visited the building more than 100 times since 2019, largely for similar issues to the ones that led to the closure, the spokesperson said. Fire crews also responded to five fires in the building last year and another five so far this year.
The statement said the city doesn't issue vacate orders lightly, and the building has "serious safety concerns and fire code violations that must be addressed to ensure residents are safe."
Willis said her organization had helped several of the building's residents transition from living in a homeless encampment to the apartment — and the eviction marks a real setback for them.
"This is a really sad day for them, because they're wondering what they've done wrong — and they haven't done anything wrong," Willis said, adding some former Adanac residents have already started setting up a new homeless encampment to live in.
"This really undoes so much of the work that's actually been done with a lot of these folks, and they are devastated."
'Heartbreaking' setback: advocate
Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud, CEO of Siloam Mission, said organizations like hers jumped to action after learning last week that 27 people would be losing their homes in a matter of days.
Blaikie Whitecloud said the lack of affordable and long-term supportive housing in Winnipeg made it a difficult task.
Advocates also worried about how the evictions would affect people who have struggled with addictions, and wanted to work to ensure any setbacks they faced would be as minimal as possible, she said.
"Maybe for somebody, this is going to spark a relapse. Maybe for somebody, this is going to mean they lose contact with their family," Blaikie Whitecloud said.
"What in their recovery that they've been working on are they going to lose because they are now losing their housing? So it is absolutely heartbreaking."
Meanwhile, neighbour Robert Gurniak said he wants to see the building shut down, something that should have happened a long time ago. His daughter used to live there in 2016, but left a year later after he said it got "too rough."
He says people constantly break in to the building, and he believes drugs are the main cause behind the majority of the fires.
"The owner can't do very much, because she's not around here," he said.
Gurniak feels sorry for the people losing their housing because of the apartment's closure, but said they "shouldn't be living in a building that's full of drugs and dirt."
A spokesperson for the province said the Manitoba government is aware of the closure of the apartment, where many residents are "vulnerable persons with complex needs," and has been working closely with the City of Winnipeg on the issue.
It's also been helping connect residents with resources and transitioning them to alternate housing. A reception centre has been set up to help tenants with things like finding somewhere to stay and applying for Manitoba Housing or Employment and Income Assistance, the spokesperson said.