Lions Place residents get three years of rent relief

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/04/2025 (193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of seniors who live in the former Lions Place are breathing sighs of relief after the provincial government stepped in to continue their subsidized rent for another three years.

Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said Thursday seniors who lived in the building when it was sold in early 2023 to Alberta real estate firm Mainstreet Equity Corp., will continue to have subsidized rent.

“For the next three years we are investing $3.315 million to keep these folks housed,” Smith said Thursday.

“For the next three years, we have an agreement with… Mainstreet Equity to ensure that the rents are kept at the affordable rate and that if there are any rent increases, there are no above-guideline rent increases going forward.”

Smith noted there are vacant suites in the building. She said new tenants who meet low-income requirements would also qualify for the subsidized rent.

She said new legislation is winding through the government process to protect the province’s supply of non-market, social and affordable housing.

The minister said the government wants to ensure the sale of a building such as Lions Place “can’t happen again in the future, where folks are left wondering ‘Am I going to have to move? Am I going to have my community? Am I going to be able to afford to stay in this apartment?’ ”

The building was constructed in the 1980s by Lions Housing Centres to provide affordable housing for seniors, with financing assistance from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

After Lions Housing Corp., paid off the $13.5-million mortgage, and the province didn’t renew its funding agreement in 2018, it decided to sell the building.

Mainstreet bought the building for a reported $24 million, despite seniors asking the province to intervene.

In the wake of the protests, the province agreed to spend $1.2 million over two years to top up the rent paid by seniors. That deal expired last month.

Bill Turner, chairman of the building’s residents committee, said the more than 100 seniors still in the 241-unit apartment building, now known as Residences of Portage Commons, were pleased to hear the news.

“When they said they were going to have a three-year rent supplement you could just hear the sigh of relief from the residents,” Turner said.

“Anyone here, prior to the sale, will be grandfathered to the supplement. And anyone new that meets the (income) threshold will get subsidized rent.

“I will be staying here.”

Another senior resident, Norm Pohl, said “it’s good news for people who live in the building. Our rents will stay within provincial guidelines.

“That’s fair enough.”

Tom Simms, whose mother has lived in the building for 27 years, said he is glad the province sent a team to meet with residents on Thursday rather than just sending a letter. But he said he and others are concerned the province gave no assurances that the amenities inside the building will continue.

“The cafeteria, the store, the greenhouse, the auditorium and the library — these amenities are important,” he said.

“We asked the government to look at that, because there needs to be an agreement to keep them, but there was an evasiveness by them. The province has lots of leverage — we want to see more leadership from the province.”

Erika Wiebe, co-chair of the Right to Housing Coalition’s seniors working group, said the province’s agreement was “very good news for the seniors.”

But Wiebe said it was a tragedy that the building was sold and that the previous Tory government didn’t step in to stop it.

“It should never have been sold in the first place,” she said.

“It sticks in your craw that all this money is going to a multimillion-dollar corporation — but at least it keeps the tenants there. This is the next best thing.”

Wiebe said she is glad the province is moving towards making it more difficult for a future non-profit to sell a subsidized residential building and called on the province to provide more affordable units.

“We have such a dire need for social housing,” she said, noting 600 new units were in last year’s provincial budget.

”Right to Housing is calling for 1,000 new social housing (units) to be built per year until there are 10,000 new ones.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca