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Social housing facilities should be a safe place, but recent issues at one in Saskatoon have some residents worried.
King Edward Place is a highrise on Kinsmen Avenue in downtown Saskatoon where some people living there say a problem has developed with non-residents wandering the hallways, passing out in stairwells and making them feel unsafe.
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Saskatchewan NDP claimed at a news conference on Tuesday that a man who had recently moved into the building was on probation and renting out his suite to others so they can consume drugs, thus creating the issue.
Half of the windows on the main floor of the building have screens, including the windows in Lynnett Boris’ suite, who also spoke at the news conference.
“My screen’s been slashed a couple of times,” said Boris, a 15-year resident. “I have a lock box on my door so that my care aides can lock the doors after they leave at night — that’s been stolen and found up on the second or third floor.”
Boris is now concerned the issues could escalate.
“What worries me the most is that one of these days that screen is not only going to be slashed but broken,” she said. “I’m gonna be helpless to defend myself.”
She said she had heard stories from other residents as well.
“I’ve been told by the other residents that we do have an addict … on the second floor,” she said. “He is renting out mattresses to homeless people, so we’ve got homeless people and drug addicts walking and staying in our building all the time and it isn’t safe.”
Boris posed a question to the provincial government as well.
“I’m wondering how the Sask. Party members would feel if one of their parents lived in the building or in a building like this,” she asked. “What would they do? Put yourself in a senior’s shoes and see how you feel.”
The building is run by the Saskatoon Housing Authority, which is an agency of the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation and governed by an independent local board of directors.
Boris said complaints have been lodged with the building’s tenant coordinator, but nothing had been done.
“She shrugged it (complaints) off,” said Boris. “She has actually told other people that are interested in moving in … not to believe the residents because they’re all a bunch of liars and they exaggerate about what is going on in the building.”
Boris said she would like to see more security cameras covering the interior.
“They don’t cover the stairwells or all the entrances,” she said.
Nathaniel Teed, Saskatchewan NDP MLA for Saskatoon Meewasin, said at the news conference that the building used to be for seniors only but that isn’t the case anymore.
“There was safety and there was security in that,” Teed said. “You had seniors living alongside seniors … the Sask. Party changed those regulations very quietly and started allowing folks with complex needs and addictions to be housed here.”
Ahead of the October 2024 provincial election, Teed requested then Minister of Social Services Gene Makowsky tour the facility with him.
“I asked him for action, I asked him to join me for a pre-election tour,” Teed said. “There was no response to that request.”
Teed is now asking Terry Jenson, the current Minister of Social Services, to tour the building.
Keith Jorgenson, Saskatchewan MLA for Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood and NDP seniors critic, called the issues a perfect storm.
“We have a building that’s not being maintained in terms of the emergency exits and security doors,” he said. “The building isn’t secure — Sask. Housing has lost control of the knowledge of who lives in the building.”
The NDP said that security doors are being held together by bungee cords.
NDP MLA Keith Jorgenson took a photo of a bungee cord securing a door shut in the King Edward Place social housing in Saskatoon on April 14. He says it’s because one resident is opening up his suite to non-residents leading to safety concerns (Keith Jorgenson/Submitted)
The party also said that drug dealing and drug use has been happening in common areas and that feces have been smeared on the walls.
A statement provided by the Ministry of Social Services on behalf of the provincial government and the Saskatoon Housing Authority, said a security company had been contracted to be on site.
“They provide an impartial overview of activities in the building. Video surveillance footage and discussions with the on-site security company does not support claims that guests are sleeping in stairwells, wandering the building or engaging in illegal activity such as drug dealing.”
“We have been made aware of some concerns recently,” said Natasha Sebastian, Director of Housing Authority operations for Saskatchewan Housing Corporation.
“In this particular building we’ve had security cameras in the common room for quite some time and … the security company that has been contracted has reported no recent concerns.”
“We’re going to continue to look into this to determine exactly what is happening here,” said Jenson said, adding the government is hearing the concerns coming from seniors.
“We want to make sure that the building is safe and secure at all times,” he said.
— with files by CKOM News
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