It’s been almost 50 days since more than 200 people were rushed out of their homes in the Birchwood Terrace apartments due to structural issues in the building.
Since then, many have set up in hotels and face a shifting, unknown future.
“This is my third hotel now,” said Debby Ross, an evacuee. “At the end of … June, are we going to be staying here or do we have to pack up and leave again?”
On June 14, letters from the Manitoba government were slipped under tenants’ hotel room doors, with notification that their current accommodations would be provided up to the end of the month.
The City of Winnipeg had been assisting residents to find permanent accommodations, but housing is costly.
“I’m a senior. I get social security and stuff like that — I don’t get much,” Lucy Porter said. “Plus, I have to pay my husband’s rent in a home that he’s in over $1,200 a month and then, on top of that, mine. Then I have to go to the food bank also to help get groceries, to get food. And they expect us to move into an apartment that’s $14, $15, $1,600 a month.”
In addition, residents’ belongings are still locked away in their untouchable Birchwood Terrace units.
“All of our stuff is there,” said Carol Lynch, another evacuee. “I brought my son’s ashes, my dog’s ashes and my jewelry box. That’s it, really. So even if we find a place to live, we’ve got nothing. We have nothing. We don’t even have a pot to cook anything in.”
“We would have to sleep on the floor. Bare floor,” Porter said.
“They’re always saying, ‘Well, find a friend to lend you furniture, find a friend to do this,’” Lynch said. “Well, all our friends were in the building. We had a good neighbourhood in that building so we just want to go home.”
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As of June 15, the City of Winnipeg said the province had assumed responsibility for the displaced tenants’ accommodations and support.
Last week, Premier Wab Kinew promised continued help and apologized for the stress of limited notice when it comes to changes in that support.
“No one’s going to be put out into the street, and that’s my commitment. It’s just the nature of government that we fund things in these little windows of time. So I apologize to folks that, you know, you get two weeks and then two weeks of heads-up. But the fact of the matter is that folks have been put into a situation that I don’t think any of us would ever imagine would befall somebody,” Kinew said.
“I recognize that creates some anxiety for folks because certain deadlines get worked up that aren’t real deadlines. What I’m saying to people is that we’re going to continue to work with you to find a permanent home in light of this unforeseen situation,” he said.
Without giving timelines, he added that his government is looking at legislation to see how it can prevent future situations like this one, and how to address what’s in front of them.
“You have a private company who’s created this situation of stress for so many people, and now it’s up to the taxpayers of Manitoba to step in. Is that fair? So, I don’t know what the specific remedy is yet,” he said.
Since the initial evacuation, residents say Ladco — the building owner — has remained tight-lipped.
“Ladco has been out of the picture from the very beginning,” Ross said.
“(They gave) us $200 gift certificates from Sobeys and that’s it. Nothing else,” said Lynch, which Ross said was because the food had been taken out of their fridges to prevent attracting bugs.
In an emailed statement, a provincial spokesperson said, “to date, the landlord is dealing with issues that are brought to their attention either by the Residential Tenancies Branch (RTB) or tenants themselves. ”
Global News reached out to Ladco for comment but has not heard back.
The residents said they are still unsure of when they will be able to get access to their apartments, and have heard various timelines from the city.
A spokesperson with the city said there are “no updates on the status of the building.”
“At this point, it is the responsibility of the property owner to stabilize and remediate the building’s structural issues,” they said.
It’s a frustrating reality for Birchwood Terrace tenants, who feel like they have been treated as less than human.
“Nobody’s saying anything. It’s like mind games. We’re not puppets, you know, we’ve got feelings,” Ross said.
“It’s been very, very depressing. You just don’t know what to do anymore. I mean, they shouldn’t have done that to us. They should have looked after that place, but they didn’t, and look what happened,” Porter said.
Joyce Hilborn said she had been living at Birchwood Terrace for 32 years.
“I paid my rent, was a good tenant, and this is what I get in the end,” she said. “It’s about time Ladco steps up and takes some responsibility. We’re humans. We have to be treated like humans.”
A factsheet by the RTB outlines the responsibilities of landlords and tenants.
Among the responsibilities of the landlord, it is expected that they “do repairs and keep the unit in good condition.”
In the event of a frustrated tenancy — when a tenancy is ended because of a fire, flood or other occurrence — the RTB said residents have the right of first refusal “as long as this occurs within one year of when the tenancy was terminated.”
It says landlords are not obligated to provide alternative housing, though many landlords with available units have.
“We need help. We really need help. We want to go home,” Ross said.
