What's Happening In Your Province
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Source: Wpg Sun
The Manitoba government has taken steps to assist tenants affected by a sudden eviction, it was announced Friday. Manitoba Consumer Protection and Government Services reports, the Residential Tenancies Branch (RTB) has issued several orders to the landlord of 285 College Ave. in Winnipeg and is helping tenants return to their units immediately. The province will have security officers at the apartment starting at 8 p.m. Friday and will provide 24-hour security until midnight on Monday. The security team has been given a list of tenant names and there will be new keys available for tenants to access their apartments. Identification matching the tenancy list or proof of tenancy will be required. Dozens of tenants were given cash and told to immediately vacate the Stratford Hall three-storey apartment building on College Avenue on the weekend after a notice saying the building was shut down was posted at the front entrance. Tenants came back to the apartment building on Monday to signs that the locks on the building would be changed in 24 hours. Many of their belongings were strewn on the lawn outside of the building. At a news conference Wednesday, Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Bernadette Smith said the government was “outraged” at the eviction. “These events are unacceptable, and they’re roadblocks to our efforts to end homelessness in our province,” Smith said. Smith said evictions without due cause, entering a tenant’s suite without notice, as well as disposing of their belongings are all illegal. She added changing locks on an apartment without due process is also illegal. Smith added the province is working to help rehome tenants and compensate them for the loss of their belongings.
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7/17/2024 0 Comments These events are unacceptable': Manitoba government investigating apartment mass evictionSource: CTV News The Manitoba government is working to rehome residents who were suddenly evicted from a Winnipeg apartment building, and said charges could be laid against the property owner. Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Bernadette Smith said the government was “outraged” at the eviction at 285 College Avenue. Tenants came back to the apartment building on Monday to signs that the locks on the building would be changed in 24 hours. Many of their belongings were strewn on the lawn outside of the building. “These events are unacceptable, and they’re roadblocks to our efforts to end homelessness in our province,” Smith said. Smith said evictions without due cause, entering a tenant's suite without notice, as well as disposing of their belongings are all illegal. She added changing locks on an apartment without due process is also illegal. Smith added the province is working to help rehome tenants and compensate them for the loss of their belongings. Consumer Protection and Government Services Minister Lisa Naylor said the investigation into the eviction is ongoing by the Residential Tenancies Branch. “This could add up to some substantive charges,” Naylor said. “And if the investigation reveals there are criminal actions as a part of what has gone on, it can also be referred to the justice system.” Naylor said the property owners are previously known to the RTB.  Source: Global News
The province of Manitoba says it’s investigating the evictions at a North End apartment building earlier this week. Numerous residents were forced to leave an apartment on College Avenue in Winnipeg this week, with minimal notice. Many tenants told Global News they were offered money to leave abruptly and were locked out of their apartments, and some had their personal belongings removed and tossed out. Kyle Lemke was one of them. “It’s severely impacted my life, it was by all means, as I suspected at first, an illegal eviction,” Lemke told Global News. Lemke is now staying in a hotel, trying to decide what to do next. “My finances are obviously dwindling right now,” he said. “Homelessness is not something I’ve ever experienced, and not something I ever want to experience.” During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said many of the landlord’s alleged actions are illegal. “I just say shame on that landlord. He needs to be part of the solution and he needs to make amends for what he has done,” Smith said. “And he’s going to be held accountable by this government.” The province says it’s working to identify and contact each of the residents of the apartment building to help them find housing and to help compensate tenants for personal items that were thrown out by property management. It says residents are able to make a claim against the landlord and is urging them to contact the Residential Tenancies Branch for further steps. It will also be conducting an investigation into the landlord’s actions. “This could add up to substantive charges,” Consumer Protection and Government Services Minister Lisa Naylor said. “And if investigation reveals criminal action has gone on here, then it can be referred to the justice system.” Marion Willis, the founder and executive director of Street Links, says many of the tenants previously lived in homeless encampments and were re-housed by her organization. She says she also has concerns this landlord will take similar action at another rental property. “The people in that building, at least 50 per cent of them are people we’ve taken out of encampments and housed in that building,” Willis said. “They aren’t people you’re going to mess with, but they’re human beings, though, and they have as much of a right as you do and I do to be housed.” Global News reached out to Lanawae Housing Centre who said they are in the process of moving tenants out and working to ensure tenants have alternate accommodations. 7/3/2024 0 Comments Winnipeg considers taking derelict properties off owners' hands, turning them into affordable housingSource: CBC News The City of Winnipeg wants to make it easier to take vacant and derelict properties and turn them into affordable housing.
Winnipeg has seen a growing number of derelict properties, some of which burn down and sit as piles of rubble for years. The city now wants to give its chief administrative officer the authority to accept properties from owners who want to give them up before the tax sale process begins. Currently those decisions require a vote of council. "In some situations, it may be more cost effective to purchase a problem property rather than attach a charge for violations to the tax bill or incur ongoing resource costs," wrote Marc Pittet, the city's manager of real estate and land development, in a report for city council. "Additionally, some property owners may wish to surrender their property to the city prior to entering into tax sale status — thereby reducing the number of years it would normally take before the city assumes control of a property." Non-profits looking to build housing could also get more opportunities to buy city-owned property at a low cost — as little as $1 — anywhere in the city, the report suggests. Cheryl Martens has documented vacant and boarded-up houses in the Spence neighbourhood.
A house on Sherbrook Street is just one example. It's been boarded up for about four years, and its garage, now surrounded by metal security fencing, burned down six months ago. A rear window is exposed, the board that covered it lying on the ground — a violation of city bylaws governing how vacant buildings should be secured. "This is what happens when a place is boarded [up]," Martens said. "It's an eyesore." She says she looked at the house when the property was put up for sale, but thinks it needs at least $100,000 in repairs, which would put its total cost beyond what most houses in the neighbourhood could fetch. "It's a very cute house.… It's got double gables, a little front porch," she said. "But we do need the city or someone with some imagination to come and reinvigorate our neighbourhood and places like this.… It needs to have somebody who doesn't have primarily a profit motive." Costs to owners, city Over on Powers Street in the North End, William Whyte Neighbourhood Association president Darrell Warren says he'd like to see a row of four houses that have all burned in the last year torn down to make way for new housing. "If I was a property owner, and I could walk away from this without any cost or anything, I would probably sign it over," he said. The cost of repairs can be prohibitive, but Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) says the new policies could help. "This is a really good step, if the city is willing to kind of step in and take some ownership and really work through some of those bureaucracy issues that people are having, and get rid of some of these properties faster."
Non-profit housing advocate Christina Maes Nino says other cities have had success with similar programs. "It won't be enough to address the city's housing crisis," she said, but "in order to do that, we need to throw all of the tools in the tool shed at housing." Property and development chair Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) says the proposed change would help speed up the process of redevelopment. "There's so many costs associated with people just sitting on property, it being derelict, vacant or distressed, including what unfortunately Winnipeggers are experiencing now, which is fires," Rollins said. "So creating those off ramps in this real estate policy is a good thing." The report's recommendations still need approval from council. The property committee will vote on the recommendations on Thursday. |
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