Houses in Swan River where some of the area’s most vulnerable persons resided have been emptied and boarded up, beginning with the ‘White House’ on the corner of Seventh Avenue South and First Street South that was closed on Nov. 23, followed by a home on Duncan Crescent that was closed on Nov. 30.
The closure of the White House followed an investigation under the provincial legislation Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, which allows several confidential complaints to trigger an investigation and permit relevant authorities to enter the property.
“In response to a confidential complain, Manitoba Justice Public Safety Officers visited the residence accompanied by representatives of the Swan Valley Fire Department and Public Health,” said a Manitoba government spokesperson. “Based on the conditions observed, and as a result of numerous safety and health violations, it was determined that the residence was uninhabitable and required to be closed down immediately. Given the significant safety concerns, Public Health issued a health hazard order and residents were given some time to pack up their things, but were told they had to leave almost immediately.”
At the time of the investigation, eight individuals appeared to reside in the home, but there were at least 15 occupants there at the time of the inspection and everyone was asked to leave due to the conditions observed.
Swan Valley Fire Department acting Fire Chief Darren Fedorchuk attended the property as part of the investigation, and also issued an order to close under the provisions of the provincial Fire Prevention and Emergency Response Act.
If the property owner chooses to improve the property to a reasonable standard, both Manitoba Justice and the Office of the Fire Commissioner will have to be satisfied by inspection.
“Because of the life safety issues in (the house), we had to close it and board it up,” said Fedorchuk. “If the owner of the property wanted to appeal, they would appeal to the Fire Commissioner.”
While Fedorchuk couldn’t explain specific details, he did outline the life safety hazards with lack of smoke detectors, egress issues with blocked doors and lack of exit windows in some bedrooms, electrical issues, among other issues.
“There were some general fire safety things where we’d be looking at fatalities (in a serious fire emergency),” he said.
Fedorchuk also explained that the property was also tested according to a commercial standard because it was being operated as a rental property, despite being zoned and built as residential. He explaind this is common when it comes to rental properties.
Fedorchuk also noted that while the property did violate some of the Town’s bylaws, many of the infractions coincided with existing provincial legislation and were incidental to the investigation and actions taken.
The home on the south end of Duncan Crescent was boarded up under an order from Manitoba Public Health, and Fedorchuk said he was asked to board it up because people continued to enter the property after being evicted.
“We initially got the rerport that (the house) had no water or heat, and that automatically triggers an occupancy issue,” said Fedorchuk, noting that there have been some other developments going on with it since, but isn’t aware of all the details.
For more details on some of the people that have been affected by these evictions, see next week’s edition of the Star and Times.