Evacuated residents worry about their fate as repairs set to begin on rotting apartment

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This article was published 15/05/2024 (484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For more than six years, Des Kappel and his Chihuahua, Nemo, lived in a two-bedroom apartment on Portage Avenue. Now, the pair are stranded in a hotel near the airport.

“This just isn’t my week,” Kappel said Wednesday, laughing at the misfortune that saw him evacuated from Birchwood Terrace.

Some 250 residents living in the five-storey apartment complex at 2440 Portage Ave. were given 12 hours’ notice to move out May 9, after engineers identified rotting structural support beams placing the building at risk of collapse.

Some sought shelter with family and friends, while others — like Kappel — found support from the City of Winnipeg and the Canadian Red Cross, which arranged accommodations at various city hotels.

Earlier this week, Kappel learned his temporary lodgings would be extended until the end of the month while work begins on the shuttered property.

The extended stay is welcome, but Kappel, who is already “exhausted and overwhelmed” by the evacuation process, fears what will happen once the emergency support ends.

“I don’t want to put them down. I appreciate that I have a place to stay, but better communication would be outstanding so that we aren’t all wondering what’s going on.”

Updates from the city and Red Cross, and from property owner Ladco Company, have come in the form of sporadic emails — most containing little more than a few sentences, he said.

One notice, sent Monday by the Red Cross, informed evacuees the checkout date for those staying in hotels was extended.

A city spokesperson confirmed the extension Wednesday, but did not say for how long.

Kappel said he checked with the concierge at his hotel to confirm he was cleared to stay until May 30.

Another email to evacuees, this one sent by Ladco on Wednesday, said contractors were preparing to begin work on the building, which has remained inaccessible since the city orders came down.

“They control the access, even for Lakewood (Agencies) employees, and the rules for access have not yet been approved. Timeframe for completion is still unknown,” said the email, viewed by the Free Press.

Kappel said issues at the Portage Avenue apartment extend beyond the structural damage, alleging the property has suffered from heating and plumbing issues, mould and pest infestations.

He contacted lawyers Tuesday to discuss the potential of a class-action lawsuit against the property manager. They suggested he first attempt to find a resolution through mediation with the Residential Tenancies Branch, he said.

Eight tenants have reached out to the tenancies branch since the evacuation but none have filed complaints, a provincial spokesperson said Wednesday.

Since 2020, the tenancies branch has intervened in four repair disputes at Birchwood Terrace. The complaints were filed by two tenants and included a damaged window, roof leakage, moisture in the cooling and heating systems, and leakage from a toilet, and bathroom sink and shower, the spokesperson said.

Courtney Thibert, another former resident, has been confused and frustrated by the evacuation. She and other evacuees have been left to figure things out alone, she said.

Ladco hosted an emergency meeting with tenants on the day the order came down, telling them they would need to access financial support and accommodations through private insurance, the city or Red Cross, she said.

After the evacuation, Thibert and her two children went to live with her parents — not realizing doing so would disqualify them from accessing emergency supports, she said.

Thibert’s insurance company will not honour her coverage because the evacuation was caused by negligence, she said.

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“Some residents have said they wish the building was just involved in a fire because then we would get the support we need,” she said.

Kappel has private insurance but has not yet tried to access it, he said.

“I haven’t tried to call them because I’ve heard of all the others being denied, so why start a claim and pay a higher premium if it’s just going to be cancelled anyway,” he said.

“I wanted content insurance and loss of use insurance, in theory, so I wouldn’t lose everything and have no support, which is exactly what’s now happening.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.