Seniors concerned about safety of Saskatoon Housing Authority building

Lynnett Boris is living in fear in her long-time home.

She says her apartment in King Edward Place on 25th Street in Saskatoon — a building run by the Saskatoon Housing Authority — has turned into a nightmare, with homeless people and people with drug addictions roaming the halls while the building falls into disrepair.

"My [window] screen's been slashed a couple of times," said Boris, who uses a wheelchair.

"What worries me the most is one of these days the screens are not only going to be slashed, but broken, and I'm going to be helpless to defend myself."

She has a lockbox on her door, so that care aides can lock up after they leave at night.

"That's been stolen and found up on the second or third floor," she said.

Boris spoke at an NDP news conference on Tuesday, called by the provincial Opposition party to highlight the problems with the building. The Ministry of Social Services disputes these claims.

Keith Jorgenson, the NDP's critic for seniors, said tenants have told him about drug use happening openly in common areas of the building, people passed out in stairwells, and feces smeared on walls. 

The building has gone from being one reserved for seniors to a social housing facility that is housing people with mental and physical health problems because of a lack of acute care spots, he said.

"It destroys the livability of the building," Jorgenson said. "You have a games room that people haven't gone into for months and months because people are afraid to go into the common spaces."

Plus, those with addictions or who are homeless need special supports — something King Edward Place doesn't have, he said.

"It's absolutely appalling that the government is choosing to offload the problem that they've created in acute care onto seniors."

Jorgenson said there are several residents who are legitimately living in the building and were previously homeless, but they are then allowing other people into the building. 

He claimed some are renting out mattresses to other people.

"No seniors should have to sort of lock themselves and barricade themselves in and be afraid at night," he said.

King Edward Place is a social housing building intended to allow people age 55 or older to live independently, and all of the current residents meet the requirements to live in seniors' social housing, the Ministry of Social Services said in an emailed statement sent to CBC on behalf of its housing division and the Saskatoon Housing Authority.

The statement also says a security company has been contracted to be on site. 

"Video surveillance footage and discussions with the on-site security company does not support claims that guests are sleeping in stairwells, wandering the building or engaging in illegal activity such as drug dealing," the ministry's statement said. "We want senior social housing to be a welcoming, safe space for all senior residents who require affordable housing in their communities," the statement said.

It said the housing authority has "directly followed up with all involved tenants" about concerns "and continues to provide support and work with residents to ensure they meet their lease agreement obligations."

But Boris said that hasn't been the case.

She said the building is in disrepair, with bungee cords holding security doors in place, and when she's reached out to the housing department, her concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

Other tenants are afraid to speak out for fear of losing their suites, she said.

"A lot of these seniors are under the impression that if they speak out and complain that somehow Sask. Housing is going to evict them from their spaces."