The province has promised to provide rooming and meals to the displaced residents of a St. James apartment complex, days before housing support from the Red Cross was set to expire.
About 250 people were forced to leave Birchwood Terrace with about 12 hours notice on May 9 after the city issued an evacuation order citing structural support issues and a risk of the building collapsing.
Some of the evacuees have been provided accommodations at hotels and food stipends through the city and the Canadian Red Cross while they find new homes, but those supports were set to expire at the end of May.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Roughly 250 people were forced to leave Birchwood Terrace with about 12 hours notice on May 9.
Kirkfield Park MLA Logan Oxenham said Thursday the province would be stepping in to cover those costs.
“Let me be clear — no one from Birchwood Terrace will end up on the streets on June 1. Our government will ensure that there is no interruption of service,” he said in the legislative chamber. “We will be there to support folks through this weekend and beyond.”
Judith Stanley, her partner and their dogs were among the residents forced out of Birchwood Terrace, where she lived for a decade. They’re staying at a Best Western while applying for apartments.
She said they found out Thursday night that their stay had been extended until June 7 and a pre-paid credit card provided by the Red Cross with a daily food stipend has been reloaded up until Tuesday.
Stanley said she’s grateful, but apartment hunting has been difficult and she fears they won’t find a place to stay in the next seven days.
“We’re still looking for an apartment. We can’t find one. People aren’t messaging back,” she said. “And then, if we do go to see them, they’ve got tenants lined up. To sublease apartments, they’ve got people lined up 20 deep, and there’s nothing unusual in that.”
Most apartment complexes bring in new tenants on the first of the month and don’t have flexible move-in dates, Stanley said, and most rents are much more than what they were paying at Birchwood.
“If we do get an apartment, and say it’s for July 1, which is a reasonable time, where are we going to go for three weeks? … I know this is unprecedented, but it’s got to have a little bit of leeway,” she said. “Give us a bit of breathing room.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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