A group of seniors at Arborg’s Sunrise Lodge are frustrated by a lack of response from Manitoba Housing in regards to concerns they’ve raised about an aggressive tenant who moved into the building roughly a year ago.
A spokesperson for the seniors, whom the Express has agreed to keep anonymous as they fear reprisal, said many seniors lock themselves in their apartments as they feel the tenant’s behaviour is escalating.
“The tenant is bullying and intimidating seniors who are 80 and 90 years old, calling them f-ing bitches. He has a F..k Trudeau sign on the outside of his apartment door that grandkids see when they come to visit their grandparents. He yells at people to ‘shut those f-ing kids up.’ He mocks a lady who has had a stroke when he walks past her,” said the spokesperson. “It’s been hellish.”
The tenant has also thrown other tenants’ laundry on the floor in the shared laundry room, ripped down meal sign-up sheets for a meal program and kicked over ceramic ornaments and plants that tenants have placed by their front doors, said the spokesperson.
“There are common rules for everybody. You can’t rip down meal sign-up sheets. You can’t throw other people’s laundry on the floor. You can’t walk down the hallway and call seniors a f-ing bitch. But if people tell him that, I think in his mind he takes it as a personal attack,” said the spokesperson. “It’s hard for him because he’s not well. I have empathy for people that are not well. But this is not the place for him.”
The tenants think Manitoba Housing has been transferring low-income or homeless people from the city to rural communities where the provincial social housing department has buildings, said the spokesperson, and many have serious mental health issues that are perhaps not being addressed or monitored.
“At Sunrise Lodge there’s at least six people with very bad mental health problems,” said the spokesperson. “The people Manitoba Housing is putting in here have severe mental health problems and they don’t all have a support worker that’s monitoring them and helping them take their medications. There is really is no mental health facility for adults that need this kind of help. Where do you put someone that is not mentally well and needs help? Who has 24-hour care for these people?”
Manitoba Housing used to have a process for dealing with nuisance tenants, said the spokesperson. The first time you got a verbal warning, then a written notice and then you were asked to leave.
“I don’t know if these rules have changed. Nowadays, if you say something, it can be turned against you and they’ll say you’re discriminating against another person. So maybe Manitoba Housing has just pushed the rules aside,” they said. “But there has to be some rules so that we don’t have this kind of situation and people that are so scared and locking themselves in their rooms every day because of one person.”
A number of seniors have told the building manager about the aggressive behaviour, and the manager’s response has been that “if you don’t like it, you don’t have to live here.” Now they’re scared to continue raising concerns with the manager because they think they’ll be “pushed out if they complain.”
“Manitoba Housing is affordable. Everything else is around $1,400 or more for rent,” said the spokesperson. “A lot of people here came off the farm and they don’t have that kind of money. They can’t afford to go anywhere else.”
Manitoba Housing’s regional office was contacted and they were told a report was written. But nothing has happened and the seniors feel the situation is escalating, said the spokesperson.
“Nothing has been done. The seniors have a right to be safe in their own place,” they said. “I guess that’s why we have to go public because no one is helping us. Some of the seniors have put a complaint in writing and said they’re scared of him and it still falls on deaf ears. This can’t go on.”
The Express reached out the Manitoba Housing to ask what steps it has taken to protect seniors at Sunrise Lodge from aggressive behaviour, how it helps tenants who may be experiencing mental health issues and causing problems for other tenants, and whether unhoused people from the city are being placed in rural communities such as Arborg.
A spokesperson for Manitoba Housing said they’re working to resolve the concerns raised at Sunrise Lodge.
“Manitoba Housing’s goal is to promote safe, healthy communities that are inclusive, and encourage self-reliance and shared housing responsibility,” he said. “It takes all concerns brought to attention seriously and works with tenants to resolve them. Manitoba Housing staff are actively working to resolve the concerns brought forward by tenants at Sunrise Lodge.”
