New fact sheet lays out how property owners can evict lawbreaking tenants

Another tool has been added to the community safety toolbox with a new fact sheet about evicting tenants engaged in criminal activity, Point Douglas community activists say.

The fact sheet, put together in collaboration with community members, lets landlords know what they need to do to evict tenants who are breaking the law and putting others at risk, Manitoba Justice Minister Cliff Cullen said Monday.

"I think it's a matter of taking what's working here in Point Douglas and make sure we educate people around other communities across the province that by working together, we can eradicate this criminal activity from our local communities," Cullen said at a news conference at Barber House, a heritage building that provides low-cost space to community groups in Point Douglas.

The Winnipeg neighbourhood has a long history of problem rental properties — often rooming houses with low rent — where illegal activity takes place.

"Giving a tool like this to landlords, so that landlords know what they need to do; to tenants, so that tenants know what their landlords can do, and to the community, all of those will contribute to improving the safety and the quiet enjoyment of tenants in rental accommodation," said Elaine Bishop, a longtime resident of north Point Douglas and a board member of SISTARS (Sisters Initiating Steps Towards a Renewed Society), which runs Barber House and the Eagle Wing Early Education Centre.

Bishop is a former director of the North Point Douglas Women's Centre and in that role, she heard the tenants' side of these issues, she said.

"We saw the effect on tenants' lives of having to live in rooming houses where drugs were being used," she said.

The fact sheet provides a checklist of what landlords need to evict a problem tenant.

"What we need in communities is a whole toolbox of safety-related activities and resources that can help the community take charge of its own safety," Bishop said.

"As somebody who lives in this community, I want to live in a safe neighbourhood, and this is another way of helping us do that."