Saskatoon seniors plead for province to address concerns at housing complex

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Lynnett Boris has become familiar with what she describes as the unfathomable.

Open drug use in common areas of her seniors complex in downtown Saskatoon. People passed out in stairwells. Smeared feces on walls, and infestations of bed bugs and cockroaches. Security doors held closed by bungee cords. One tenant is alleged to be renting out mattresses by the hour.

Seniors living in King Edward Place — located on 25th Street East, near the bottom of the University Bridge and adjacent to Kinsmen Park — say they are living in fear after the provincially-run seniors social housing complex was opened to people they say are homeless or struggling with addictions.

“I’m wondering how (Sask. Party) members would feel if one of their parents lived in the building or in a building like this. What would they do?” Boris said this week.

“Put yourself in a seniors’ shoes and see how you feel.”

Concerns about the building were raised around eight months ago, when NDP’s Nathaniel Teed — MLA for Saskatoon Meewasin — wrote a letter to then-Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky, inviting him for a tour of the complex and to address safety and health issues. Teed wrote a follow-up letter in March to current Minister of Social Services Terry Jenson, issuing the same request and invitation.

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Teed this week said the building is supposed to be a provincially-run seniors housing complex, “but instead of being a safe and stable place to age, it’s turned into something completely unsafe by this government’s decision to house people with addiction challenges alongside seniors without proper supports.”

Jenson said he is aware of concerns from within the building, and insisted that the provincial government is “going to continue to look into this to determine exactly what is happening here.”

Any time complaints are raised, he added, “we’re more than willing to go investigate. Safety and security of tenants within public housing, especially when it comes to seniors, is extremely important.”

Jenson, along with Housing Authority Operations director Natasha Sebastian, said the building has video cameras in common areas, overnight on-site security four nights a week, and tracks any concerns brought forward. Tenants are required to be at least 55 years old to reside in the building, Sebastian noted.

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“We take that building’s security pretty seriously. We want to ensure it’s a safe residence,” Jenson said.

Teed said Boris and other seniors “built our province and now they’re scared to leave their suites or even walk down the hall. They’ve lost their right to live in dignity and safety.”

He renewed calls for the provincial Social Services ministry to tour the building, “meet with residents and fix these problems now.”

Boris said many residents “are under the impression” that if they speak out and complain, they could be evicted from their home.

NDP seniors critic Keith Jorgenson said seniors “shouldn’t have to get up in front of TV cameras and pressure the Sask. Party into doing the right thing.

“You can’t just throw people who were previously homeless and struggling with addictions into a seniors’ home and cross your fingers and hope that everything’s going to turn out well.”

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