Residents, owners scramble to fix Winnipeg apartment block following city order to vacate building

Matt Kubinchak doesn't know if he'll have a place to live Monday after the city served the owners of his apartment building with an order to vacate by 2 p.m. due to fire-safety issues.

"We don't know … what's going to happen," he told the CBC outside the Adanac Apartments at 737 and 743 Sargent Ave. on Sunday.

"Today we're here, tomorrow homeless," said Kubinchak, who was living in an encampment near Maryland Street before moving into the block last year.

Following a fire-safety inspection on Wednesday, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service issued an order for the building to be vacated by Monday at 2 p.m.

The order cited numerous fire code violations, including a fire alarm system that doesn't work, missing smoke alarms, inaccessible fire extinguishers and a blocked fire escape.

The building also "had no power to most suites," and extension cords were plugged into outlets in hallways to supply power to some rooms, the order says.

Residents can't move back in until the fire code violations are corrected and the block is reinspected, the order says.

That's left residents and the owners scrambling to fix the building before the Monday deadline.

"Everybody's pitching in and doing their part," Kubinchak said.

Karin Harper-Penner, who owns the building with her husband Patrick Penner, declined an interview Sunday but confirmed 40 of the block's 48 suites are currently rented out. She said about 60 people stay in the building, but that number changes often since many residents allow friends to stay with them.

Dallas Cadotte, who's been living at Adanac for nearly two years, is worried about residents who have nowhere to go.

"We don't know what we're going to do, where we're going to go, what the future holds for us right now," he said Sunday.

"This is our home. We're a part of this community."

Cadotte said the building, which has been the site of two homicides since April 2022, has a bad rap for being associated with drugs and violence, but since moving in, he's been welcomed and accepted.

"We help each other. We're a family unit. When I come home, I see all my friends here," he said.

Since the order was served, residents have been painting, patching, adding new locks, updating the alarm system, clearing the hallways and making sure the back entrances are free of fire hazards, Cadotte said.

He hopes on Monday, the city will inspect the building and allow residents to stay.

"We're doing as much as we can," he said.

Supports needed: advocate

Cadotte said St. Boniface Street Links and the province's employment and income assistance program has been helping residents find housing and suggesting ways the building can be improved.

Marion Willis, executive director of Street Links, said the organization housed 18 people from the Maryland encampment last year, and 10 are living in Adanac, while six moved on to other housing and two have returned to homelessness.

For Willis, closing the building means starting that process all over again. It also means more crises for people who have struggled with mental health, addiction and homelessness.

"If we lose these very low- to no-barrier housing buildings … we really have no place for people who are living homeless in encampments."

Willis said more investments should be made to add wraparound services in low-barrier buildings like Adanac.

"There needs to be teams in those buildings that can actually work with people on the daily," Willis said.

"The way in which a person has been living doesn't end simply because you put somebody into housing. The individuals kind of bring with them whatever lifestyle they were living."

The city's move shows a lack of understanding about what's needed to house vulnerable people, she said.

"They're looking at fire codes and looking at bylaws. They're looking at pieces of paper. We're dealing with real people out here," she said. "These aren't tokens on a game board."

She credits the building's owners for taking on a job not many want to do.

"The Penners have become rather demonized through all of this, and I think that the focus is really misplaced," she said.

"There's very few property owners and landlords out there that are willing to house such a high-risk group of people."

Cadotte said he hopes to stay with family or friends if the building closes Monday.

He's trying to keep a positive attitude and encourage other residents to do the same.

"We can't let anything break us down."