“Uprooted”: Residents at low-barrier housing in Winnipeg face surprise eviction

From Global News.

Karen Joseph is one of numerous residents in a College Avenue apartment building who were told to leave abruptly last weekend. She said property managers went around offering residents money to leave. She refused the offer initially but said she was offered a thousand dollars on Tuesday afternoon. Megan Levasseur said she was given less notice and arrived home to an empty apartment. She said workers took all her belongings out of her apartment.

"I went in the next day and said I can save stuff from my apartment but it was empty. Empty! I wasn’t able to save anything," Levasseur said. All she has now is one suitcase. Ivy Palmer, a social worker, said her brother was also forced out of the building. "My brother called Saturday morning and I could hear somebody swearing in the background and telling him he has to go," Palmer recalled.

"And he’s like: Ivy, there’s someone at my apartment and they’re offering me like one months rent and 200 dollars and telling me they’re shutting down my building," Palmer continued. Marion Willis of St. Boniface Street Links Outreach said many of the tenants used to live in encampments and had been re-homed by her organization – some of whom were turning their lives around.

Marney Blunt has more on how community organizations are stepping in to assist the evicted residents and who made the decision.

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