Winnipeg seniors fearful after Lions Place accepts Alberta firm's offer to buy building

Residents at one of the largest non-profit housing complexes in Manitoba say management has handed them a bombshell in a memo slipped under their doors on Friday with news that an Alberta firm has offered to buy their 287-suite building.

The information was near the bottom of a Nov. 25 notice to Lions Place residents about upcoming suite inspections.

"After careful consideration, [we] have accepted an offer from a firm with their head office based in Alberta," wrote Gilles Verrier, executive director of Lions Housing Centres.

The sale could be completed by the end of January, the message says.

Gerald Brown, a resident and chair of the senior action committee at Lions Place, has been part of a push to find a new non-profit organization to operate the building since they learned the building was for sale in July.

Management has offered very little transparency about the sale since that announcement, and the latest development has had residents running around the building in fear, Brown said.

"Can you imagine the frustration, anger and depression that has come out of these people?" Brown said on Monday. The average age of Lions Place residents is 74, he said.

Residents hoped a Manitoba non-profit organization would purchase the building, he says.

Echoes of former development

If the Alberta firm hoping to buy Lions Place is a for-profit company, then Brown worries the building will turn into another Smith Street Lofts — a former Manitoba Housing building once home to 200 low-income renters, mostly seniors.

Residents of the Smith Street building were told they would be temporarily displaced in 2015 as much-needed repairs were completed.

They never returned. The province sold the building for $16.2 million in 2018, with developers turning the units into luxury lofts.

"We have people living in this building who were in Smith Street when that happened," said Brown, who called it "shocking."

The senior action committee will call on the province to impose a five-year moratorium on rent increases at Lions Place, he said.

They will also ask the province to introduce legislation which would require the minister responsible for housing to approve the sale of non-profit housing facilities that have received federal or provincial funds.

Families Minister Rochelle Squires said Monday she's concerned about the future of Lions Place.

The province was not invited to the table in negotiations with the Alberta firm, but she says the government is working to ensure seniors at Lions Place continue to pay the same rent they are paying this month, this year and into the future.

"We're acting as expeditiously as we can to bring about a positive outcome for this, or the best possible outcome that we can possibly get for these seniors," Squires said.

Squires says the province will continue to meet with several partners to ensure Lions Place residents are well taken care of, and negotiate on their behalf.

Some residents aren't taking any chances and about 20 have already moved out of Lions Place, Brown said. Waiting lists for seniors housing units can be as long as three years, he said.

"We're frustrated because there are companies here in Winnipeg who would bid [on Lions Place.]"

'Where would you put 200 people?'

In an email to CBC, Verrier wrote that while Lions Place has accepted an offer from a potential buyer, it does not mean the building has been officially sold.

Non-profit organizations did view the building but did not place a bid because rents were too low to maintain it properly, he said.

"That sums up everything about why the rents must increase, whether the Lions increase it or a new owner," he wrote.

Residents have been given no information about the Alberta firm.

"What do I tell the seniors here?" Brown asked.

"Where would you put 200 people?"