A West Broadway landlord is angry the City of Winnipeg has ordered him to clear away a homeless encampment from his riverfront property or have the cleanup cost added to his property tax bill.
Marvin Sharp, CEO of Astroid Management Ltd., which manages the Pen-Eve Apartments at 35 Balmoral St., said the city is forcing private property owners to deal with a problem they didn’t create.
“This is kind of like the neighbours throwing their garbage over the fence, every single day, and the city’s saying, ‘You have to go clean this up, but we’re not going to go tell the neighbour to stop doing that,’” Sharp said. “What do you want me to do here? You’ve got a serious problem here. We’re not talking about someone throwing garbage on the ground. We’re talking about encampments.”
Sharp said he received a city compliance order on July 10 order, which was viewed by the Free Press. It says a bylaw officer observed “an accumulation of garbage” on the property, including abandoned goods of manufacture, tents and unattended shopping carts.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Marvin Sharp stands near an encampment on the property of Pen-Eve Apartments at 35 Balmoral St. Sharp questions why the burden of removing encampments and cleaning up their mess has fallen on private property owners.
The order requires the property to be cleaned by July 18 and warns the city could begin remediation as early as July 19, with the cost being added to the property taxes.
Sharp said he didn’t receive the letter until July 17. As of Monday, the city had not started cleanup work, he said, and he has since filed an appeal.
While he said he sympathizes with the people living in the encampment, Sharp said private landlords are not responsible for solving the homeless crisis.
“That’s for the government and the city and those officials to solve,” he said. “That’s not my problem to solve.”
Sharp said he’s spoken with Winnipeg police and officials at Balmoral Hall School, which cleared brush along its riverfront property in 2020 to discourage encampments.
“That’s not my problem to solve.”
The encampment behind Sharp’s building extends onto neighbouring properties, including 29 Balmoral St., a complex owned by the provincial government.
A city spokesperson said Tuesday that they work directly with property owners at each step of compliance and enforcement,“to help guide actions that will resolve violations.”
“We encourage the property owner to continue working with the officer leading the enforcement and to reach out to the Winnipeg Police Service non-emergency line for assistance with unauthorized persons trespassing on their property,” the spokesperson said.
The city says complaints about possible Neighbourhood Liveability Bylaw violations are typically made through 311 and investigated by city inspectors, who document conditions such as tents, garbage and abandoned property.
When a violation is found, property owners may receive a compliance order outlining the required cleanup and a deadline for compliance.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Sharp says people living in the encampments cut through fencing beneath the property’s parking garage and lit fires that caused significant structural damage, leaving part of the garage unstable and requiring demolition and reconstruction.
They added that its 24-hour mobile outreach service is typically sent first to active encampments to offer supports, referrals and voluntary relocation options.
Sharp said he’s spoken to police in the past, but hasn’t since receiving the letter this week.
He also doesn’t believe police can fix the problem.
Because they’re going to go down there, they’re going to tell these people to move across this imaginary line, you know, 10 feet over,” he said. “And then (the police) are going to leave and (the encampment residents) are going to go right back.
“This is dumb. This is not going to do anything. It’s just a stupid waste of time.”
Instead, he said, the city would be forcing everyone into a costly cycle of enforcement and cleanup.
“We would just go through this game,” he said. “It’s not just the cost of us going down there. It’s the taxpayer money sending the police down there.”
“This is dumb. This is not going to do anything. It’s just a stupid waste of time.”
Sherri Rollins, who represents the area on city council, wonders who will receive a compliance order next.
She said it is “beyond ironic” that orders are being issued now.
“Are all of my daycares also going to get orders?” Rollins said. “Because every Monday, they have to clean up the diapers that people have gone through. This is the state of public safety in the city. What’s up, is down. And what’s down, is up. This property owner is apoplectic? Angry? No kidding.”
Rollins said whether daycare operators or property managers are told they need to clear away encampments or be fined, neither has the personal protective equipment required to clean up needles and human feces.
“We have to get really real, and the impact on every single industry that is happening in this city because of the amount of drug-dependent use in public spaces, that is trespassing onto private property,” she said.
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Rollins wants a second emergency council meeting on the matter because she said the meeting that was held at the end of June accomplished little.
“The city is in crisis,” she said.
Sharp said the existence of the homeless camp has delayed repairs to the riverside parking lot at the property.
“We actually had construction people and we were ready to go. Then suddenly, all of the construction guys said they’re not going back there because they were concerned for their safety and for their equipment. So that caused a huge problem.”
Adding to his frustration, Sharp said tenants have complained about noise from the squatters, but his biggest concern is the risk of fire breaking out. He said people have set up camp in an opening beneath the concrete parking lot, which was caused by erosion, and several fires have been set in that location.
scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca
Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott.
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