Evicted tenants return – and find few left in suites – Winnipeg Free Press

Residents who were abruptly evicted from their St. John’s apartment complex 10 days ago were allowed to return last weekend, but their homes had been ransacked, with at least one apartment missing its refrigerator, stove and all of its furniture.

“It was a real mess,” said a 21-year-old woman who lived in the apartment Monday, adding that the closets had also been emptied.

The three-story building at 285 College Ave. changed hands on July 11. The next day, dozens of people living there were evicted without warning. Free press was unable to speak to the new owner.

The resident, who does not want to be named, has been staying ‘wherever she can be’ since July 12 and ends up in a homeless shelter.

St. Boniface Street Links employees, including director Marion Willis, were on site Monday afternoon, as were police, county rental housing department staff and security personnel.

On Friday, the province intervened with 24-hour security to get people back inside.

Willis encouraged the woman not to return to her suite because the building was in chaos.

“I honestly don’t think this building is a safe place for anyone right now… I wouldn’t be willing to leave you alone in this building,” she said.

The tenant agreed and decided to return to a shelter.

Many tenants used the building as a first step out of homelessness and had received furniture and other items from nonprofits. Those items and other necessities for people who don’t have the means to replace them have all been thrown away in recent days, Willis said.

“We have someone else who feels too traumatized to come back here,” she said. “We have other tenants who are a little concerned that they’re coming back here just to be evicted again.”

While the Free press When Willis was at the apartment complex on Monday, she was approached by police and told she would be fined $672 for trespassing.

“It wasn’t safe for that… I haven’t been in there since the last time we got a call here, which was constant, all the time, almost daily,” a police officer was heard telling Willis after he wrote the ticket.

Willis said she wasn’t concerned about the fine, but she felt it was an attempt by the landlord to prevent her from helping residents who are legally entitled to return to their homes.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had to deal with anything like this before… I feel horrible knowing that the person who did this is housing vulnerable people,” she said.

A county spokesman said the rental department had issued 32 “exclusion notices” to the landlord and had called in a locksmith to recode the locks on the apartments and the entrance.

“The county recognizes that not all tenants want to return, but at least two tenants returned to their apartments this past weekend and the county assisted them in gaining access to their apartments,” he said in an email.

It is unclear what disciplinary measures the landlord will face, if any.

“In this situation, the (rental housing department) has a number of options available, but they are still investigating,” the spokesperson said.

“Depending on the outcome of the investigation, these measures may include the imposition of further injunctions, administrative fines and prosecution for violations of the law.”

Some neighbors living in the houses across from the building were afraid that tenants would return.

The building is right next to a school and the street has become more unsafe in recent years, several neighbors told the Free press. They cited the building as one of the reasons.

A neighbor who works in harm reduction says she’s seen a spike in crime in her apartment since the COVID-19 pandemic, and her eight children regularly witness violence and police actions.

“My work came home with me,” she said. “I literally had to resuscitate a lot of people from overdoses in front of the building.”

She wonders what will happen if the province steps in. She has never seen anyone fully support the vulnerable people who live there and she would like to see that changed.

“Where were they when people were overdosing outside? Where were people when people were struggling with their addictions in this building? How come they didn’t help them then?”

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