'Very upset': Senior housing residents plead for Sask. Housing Corporation to rebuild after winter fire
Former residents of a Carievale seniors housing complex want the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation (SHC) to reconsider its decision to demolish the home.
Ten out of 14 suites at Cari-Villa, a social housing building for low-income seniors, suffered damage in a fire in January.
Ever since, the residents have been waiting for the SHC to decide if it will rebuild.
On Wednesday, the residents got an answer.
“We are not going to be rebuilding as the cost to rebuild Cari-Villa as it was is significant, and we have a high number of vacancies in the area,” said Roger Parenteau, executive director of housing operations with the SHC.
The SHC is giving the village the option to attain the property and take it over.
“If this isn’t feasible for the community, our plan will be to continue to keep the four remaining Cari-Villa units in our portfolio, and demolish the portion that was destroyed in the fire and remediate the site,” Parenteau said.
The announcement was made Wednesday evening at a meeting with the SHC, members of the village council and the Carievale Housing Authority (CHA).
Wendy Paul, the manager for the CHA, said they were given less than 24 hours notice of the meeting, and she is not happy with the outcome.
“I was very upset, very angry. I didn’t think it was fair,” Paul said.
“(The residents) have been through a lot the last two years with COVID and with the fire. This was just one more big kick for them to take.”
The fire displaced nine residents. Support was provided to help everyone connect with other social housing options in the area, according to the SHC statement.
Seven of the impacted tenants chose to continue accessing social housing and were relocated to other vacant housing units in Carievale and surrounding communities, Parenteau said, and the other two tenants chose to reside with family.
At least three of the residents had to move out of the community to find a new home, according to the CHA.
Patricia Henderson, who lived in Cari-Villa for almost a year, had to move into a small house with higher rent in Carievale. She said she is fortunate, but it does not feel like home.
“It is comfortable, but I want to be back with my family,” she said.
“I’m 79 years old. I’ve been paying taxes all those years. And now when I need my government, they say, ‘Nope, sorry we can’t do it because the bottom line won’t allow it,’” Henderson said.
Cathy Finkle, 77, temporarily moved in with her daughter and son-in-law. She was hopeful that her next move would be back into Cari-Villa, the place she had called home for five years.
“I don’t want to live anywhere else,” Finkle said. “It was everything. I loved every minute I was there. I felt at home. I felt secure.”
The residents and housing authority want the SHC to reconsider its decision.
The boiler room and one suite suffered the majority of the damage, Paul said, and most of the building is completely intact.
Linda Ewert Minshull, the village administrator, said council is discussing its options, but needs more information from the SHC before it can make a decision.
“We’re going to try with our every effort, but it’s not much of an option,” Ewert Minshull said. “You can’t throw something like that at a little village with no notice. There are no reserves.”
She said the housing corporation has tried to get the village to take over the villa in the past.
The SHC did not provide a purchase price for the building.
“If it’s our only option, we’ve got to try something,” Ewert Minshull said.
Carievale is located in the southeast corner of the province with a population of approximately 250 people.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.