'Blowing up a community': Residents ordered out of Winnipeg apartment building

People living in a Daniel McIntyre apartment block have been ordered to leave Monday due to issues with the building.

Residents of the Adanac Apartments were issued a notice to vacate last week, which was enforced on Monday with help from Winnipeg police.

The city says the notice was issued due to numerous safety issues with the building, including no power in some suites and no active fire alarm systems.

Boards could be seen going up on the windows and doors Monday.

“The people are my family. All my friends are here, and I’m not going to leave,” said Thomas Williams, one of the residents of the apartment building.

Karin Harper, who co-owns the building, says she believes the building is safe and is concerned about the people who now need to find a home.

“They’re blowing up a community right now,” she said. “There’s a community of people living in this building. It’s my opinion that the issues are not enough to have these people go live in an encampment, on the road, on the street.”

Harper said electricity in a suite is between Manitoba Hydro and a tenant, and they can shut power off for non-payment. She also said the fire panel in the building works and has been tested regularly.

Residents of Adanac Apartments were ordered to vacate the building due to numerous safety issues. (Image source: Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg)

St. Boniface Street Links director Marion Willis said a few of the tenants in the building are clients at her organization.

She said the vacate motion could have been handled better, and there was an alternative to forcing people to leave their homes.

“I would have put fire marshals in here with fire extinguishers and teams on every floor,” she said. “And I'm sure there's outreach teams that would have helped our outreach team, and we could have actually held the building for a few days until such time that it passes inspection, and that would have actually kept the people in the building rather than forcing people out.”

Willis said if the building is empty, it will become the target of thieves and vandals, and will also remove another low-cost, low-barrier housing option in Winnipeg.

A spokesperson with the provincial government says they’re working closely with the city to help people impacted by the vacate order find alternative housing.

“We recognize that many residents of the Adanac are vulnerable persons with complex needs, and we are leveraging our partnerships with community agencies to connect residents requesting assistance with resources needed to meet their immediate financial, housing, health, and social needs,” the spokesperson said.

FIVE FIRES SO FAR THIS YEAR AT APARTMENT BLOCK: WFPS

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) said the building must remain unoccupied until all outstanding fire code violations have been fixed. Since 2019, WFPS visited the Adanac Apartments 101 times, with 18 of those visits being a post-fire inspection.

“Fire inspections are important to ensuring residents can be confident in the safety of their housing,” a spokesperson for WFPS said in a statement. “Life safety is the top consideration of the WFPS and we do not issue vacate orders lightly. This building has serious safety concerns and fire code violations that must be addressed to ensure residents are safe.”

WFPS responded to five fires in the building in 2022 and another five so far in 2023.