Seniors living in Winnipeg's Lions Place fear potential sale could push them out
'The market hasn't taken care of it ... because there's no profit to be made,': Right to Housing Coalition
A group of seniors living in an affordable housing complex in Winnipeg are scrambling to find a new non-profit to take over their Portage Avenue high-rise, after learning the current owners are putting it up for sale.
Gerald Brown, chair of the senior action committee at Lions Place, says residents were recently told at a meeting with Lions Housing Centres that their 287-suite building would be put on the market with no clear timeline of when that would happen.
"When I watched the people at the auditorium that day, it reminded me of deer in headlights," Brown said at a news conference with residents and supporters on Tuesday, adding potential buyers have already started touring the building.
Tuesday's news conference was held at a former Manitoba Housing building downtown, now known as Smith Street Lofts. That building was once home to 200 low-income renters, mostly seniors, said Shauna Mackinnon of the Right to Housing Coalition.
Mackinnon said residents there were told they would be temporarily displaced in 2015 as the building underwent much-needed repairs.
WATCH | Seniors fear potential sale could push them out of Winnipeg's Lions Place :
They never returned. Instead, the province sold the building for $16.2 million in 2018, and none of the suites were maintained as affordable, she said. The province made $7.6 million from the sale and said they were going to use the money to expand initiatives for other low-income renters.
Mackinnon called it a "new low" for the provincial government. "Fast forward to today, and a similar fate faces the seniors living at Lions Place," she said.
To prevent that, Brown hopes he and the action committee will be able to secure the future of Lions Place by engaging with all three levels of government. They hope a non-profit will pick up the building and continue the services they need, but Brown said Lions Place is not the only one going through such a situation.
He spoke to other similar institutions, which have said they're in the same boat. While their mortgages have been paid off, they don't have enough money to keep up with maintenance costs due to inflation.
"They built a lot of these buildings 40 years ago. They're all struggling now," he said, calling government policy short-sighted when it comes to affordable housing for seniors.
"We've gotta do something, not just for me, but for everyone that is in similar situations," he said, noting many of the residents live on fixed incomes and rely on rent assist and pension plans.
Brown said a letter from the committee was hand-delivered to Minister of Families Rochelle Squires, who is yet to respond. He said they also plan to press Winnipeg mayoral candidates to move on the issue and will also hold further meetings with Lions Place.
"I feel very sorry for them, after the reputation they've built after all these years," he said.
Mackinnon said the government has been shirking its responsibilities to provide affordable housing, in the hopes that the market will take care of it.
"This experiment has failed.… The market hasn't taken care of it, and it won't take care of it, because there's no profit to be made."
A statement from a provincial spokesperson said Manitoba Housing doesn't own Lions Place but will nevertheless be meeting with the senior action committee to address the concerns.
Rene Jamieson, president of the senior action committee, said she sees Lions Place more as a community and a village rather than an apartment building. She compared each floor of the building to a street.
"And people keep an eye out for one another, we watch out for one another, which does not happen as much in neighbourhoods anymore. That's one of things that we want to keep: the sense of community and concern for each other," she said at the news conference.
Jamieson said there are numerous resources for seniors at Lions Place, such as a store, clinic, library, garden, greenhouse, art classes, and a storytelling group.
The building would not have the same value as it does for the current tenants, she said, adding that the issue goes deeper than bricks and mortar.
"Aging ain't easy folks," she said. "If anyone tells you these are the golden years, spit in their eye, because it ain't."
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With files from Emily Brass