Reception centre for displaced Birchwood Terrace tenants closed by City

Article content

The reception centre for tenants displaced by the evacuation of a St. James apartment building has been closed at the end of the day on Saturday with over 130 requiring food and lodging, the City of Winnipeg said.

Article content

“In total, there were 199 people registered at the reception centre,” said the spokesperson in an email. “Of those people, 132 required food and lodging. The City is working with partners to determine next steps related to finding more permanent accommodations.”

It is believed there were 250 tenants in the building’s 171 suites.

The tenants of the five-storey apartment building were ordered to evacuate last week due to concerns over the building’s structural integrity with City officials worried that it may collapse. The City issued the evacuation order Thursday evening with City officials going door-to-door Friday morning to advise tenants to ensure the building was being vacated.

The City issued the order after being notified of a third-party engineering inspection of the building that uncovered severe deterioration of its structure in various locations, necessitating the vacate order.

Many of the tenants were packing up moving trucks and personal vehicles on Friday, unsure of where they were going to live while the owners of the building assessed severe deterioration in support columns and whether it could be repaired. The timeline for repairs, inspections, and re-occupancy are not yet known; however, it’s anticipated that it may take several months to address the identified structural issues.

Article content

Toggle full screen modePrevious Gallery Image

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

Next Gallery ImageToggle gallery captions

View All 11 Photos

1 of 11

All 11 Photos for Gallery

Function Not Available

Full Screen is not supported on this browser version.

You may use a different browser or device to view this in full screen.

OK

“We’re not able to provide details of the engineer’s investigation,” said the City spokesperson. “However we can confirm they’d discovered deterioration of multiple steel columns, which led them to notify the City of Winnipeg of the situation and their urgent concerns. At this point, it is the responsibility of the property owner to stabilize and remediate the building’s structural issues. We can’t comment on how long that process could take.

“Access to the building is being discussed with the property owner and their engineer but there’s no info to provide at this time. The building owner would inform tenants with any update on that.”

On Friday, U-Haul Company of Central Canada said it was offering 30 days of free self-storage to the 250 tenants who are being forced to evacuate their apartment building at 2440 Portage in Winnipeg.

gdawkins@postmedia.com

X: @SunGlenDawkins