Homeowner fined for renting sheds to homeless

A St. Boniface homeowner has been fined by the Manitoba health department after two sheds on his property were rented by homeless people.

Charlie Warman said he was fined $247 by inspectors who visited his property Monday. They told him the insulated sheds on Horace Street were too small.

The two homeless people were given 48 hours to move out.

One of them, Debbie Peachy, 43, said the shed was perfect for her but now she will be forced back on the streets, sleeping under a bridge.

"Out on my ass. And that's where I am going to end up on," she said. "That's where I am at. So what the health department did is, yeah, they did their job … but you know what? You guys aren't tying up loose ends now. Where am I going to go now? I'm angry, very angry."

Peachy has been living in one of the sheds for more than a year. She said it is clean, warm and gives her privacy that homeless shelters don't have.

She also said the money she gets from welfare isn't enough to afford an apartment that doesn't have bedbugs.

"It's Buckingham Palace compared to what I used to have. I have serenity here," said Louis Kryminski, 56, who has been living in the other shed for about a month. "I have a radio I listen to music. You know, I got my space where I can lay down and feel better about my life."

Kryminski said he worked for 40 years but was recently diagnosed with a mental illness. Coupled with a physical disability, his ailments have left him down and out.

On the streets, where he has been before, Kryminski has been robbed and beaten.

Warman, who was charging $100 a month for each of the sheds, said he was just trying to help the homeless who can't afford to pay for an apartment.