‘Look at the bigger picture’: non-profit housing group appealing city fine for breach of vacant property bylaw

A non-profit group that wants to transform Main Street and Euclid Avenue has been ordered to repair or tear down a vacant former church that was gutted by fires.

Peter Sanderson, a director with Southern Manitoba Urban Properties Inc., said the Indigenous-led group is still trying to purchase more land on the northeast side of the North Point Douglas intersection, with the aim of building housing.

“We know the only way that neighbourhood is going to turn around is if Main Street is part of the package in the turnaround process,” he said Tuesday.

He estimated a housing complex with 100 to 120 units would cost up to $35 million.

Sanderson said the non-profit paid $2, excluding legal fees, for the former Holy Ascension Greek Orthodox Church at 197 Euclid Ave. last year. The building is essentially a roofless shell due to fire damage.

Southern Manitoba Urban Properties is trying to acquire an adjacent commercial building, at 881-893 Main St., that is vacant and also been gutted by fires. The property is in receivership. Sanderson said the non-profit is prepared to use private funds to buy the site.

In late November, the city ordered the former church to be repaired or demolished by Feb. 28, citing breaches of the vacant buildings bylaw. Otherwise, the city could demolish the building and add the cost to the property’s tax bill.

Sanderson filed an appeal on behalf of the non-profit, seeking relief. The property and development committee will hear the appeal Monday.

Sanderson said the city should offer incentives to non-profits that want to develop housing in low-income areas, not punishments.

“I’m just saying the city wants me to pay a $3,000 fine, and I think the city should look at the bigger picture and maybe stay that for consideration,” he said.

Sanderson said he received a quote of about $200,000 to demolish all of the vacant buildings on the northeast corner of Main and Euclid.

The city has awarded a contract to demolish the boarded-up building at 881-893 Main, which is subject to several compliance orders, including for unsafe conditions.

Committee chair Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said he is keeping an open mind regarding the appeal. He declined further comment.

Southern Manitoba Urban Properties wants to build homes for the “unhoused and underhoused,” Sanderson wrote in a letter to the committee. The non-profit plans to seek government support.

Ross Eadie, the councillor for Mynarski, which includes Main and Euclid, said a different group had a conditional offer to purchase 881-893 Main about a year ago, but the sale did not proceed.

“It is difficult to sell a building that really is a tear-down,” he said.

People who live and work near Main and Euclid have said homeless people use the vacant building for shelter. Several fires have been extinguished since the site was boarded up.

Matt de la Lande, who owns M.C. De Landes Monuments & Memorials at 927 Main, said the corner is an eyesore.

“If they make it into housing, I’d be all in favour,” he said.

Sanderson’s letter pitched non-profit land bank entities that are community-based and funded, but arm’s-length from government, to build more housing in Winnipeg. Some entities or trusts elsewhere acquire and convert vacant, underused or tax-foreclosed properties.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the city and housing groups are discussing a variety of ways to turn properties into homes, including ideas such as land banks or land trusts.

“Through our Housing Accelerator program, we’re already helping assemble and prepare these sites so the right partners can redevelop them,” he said in a statement.

“We’ve also launched multiple programs that help non-profit housing builders acquire land and financing and navigate through the permit process.”

He said recent policy changes made it easier for owners to tear down vacant or derelict buildings, but the city has a responsibility to the neighbourhood to ensure those buildings are secure and meet basic safety rules until they are renovated or demolished.

Duncan said it’s not feasible for the city to take the lead on housing, but it partners with higher levels of government and non-profits to build units.

He pointed to a new pilot project in which the city provides vacant and derelict properties to Manitoba Housing to develop into affordable homes, with help from social enterprises.

“We’ve acknowledged that we can be partners in the development of not just affordable housing, but rent geared to income, below market-rate housing,” Duncan said.

Spence Neighbourhood Association housing development co-ordinator Benjamin Simcoe said land acquisition is the non-profit’s last major hurdle for additional development.

“We have seen a commitment to seed funding and construction funding from the various levels of government, but there is currently no specific stream of funding for land acquisition,” he said.

The Right to Housing Coalition has lobbied the province to build social housing on some of its land, including several downtown Winnipeg parking lots.

“If they can build rent-geared-to-income housing, social housing in that part of Winnipeg it would be very helpful,” Lynne Fernandez, co-chair of the coalition’s senior working group, said of Sanderson’s proposal for Main and Euclid.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca