‘Someone is going to get killed’: Residents say situation remains out of control at housing complex

Speaking to battlefordsNOW, Berrecloth recounted several incidents that had occurred over the past few weeks and ended with police hauling several people away in handcuffs.

In late September, she said a party on the fifth floor led to several arrests. Human feces, she claimed, was left on the floor in the laundry room, hallway and elevator. She said it remained there for several hours until the janitor cleaned it up the next morning.

Days later, property was destroyed and thrown around the same floor, again, along with human feces. The next morning, she said police were called to the same floor where they arrested several people. Berrecloth said these incidents can all be traced back to one tenant but she claims management does nothing and simply says they are handling it.

“I don’t know what else we can do. We just keep on hammering. We just have to keep reporting this stuff,” she said.

Last week, Berrecloth contended with a fire on her floor. She said one tenant turned on his burners and piled clothes on top. She said the hallway started to fill with smoke.

“The flames were starting to shoot up so I just swooped it into the sink and turned the faucet on,” she said, adding no fire drills have been complete in at least two years and fears for the residents’ safety.

Tuesday night, between about 6:30 p.m. and midnight, Berrecloth said she called the police twice to break up a party on her floor. The second time she called, she had to step over a man who was bleeding from his forehead in front of her door to go downstairs and let the officers in.

“There was blood on the rug and all over and I had a basket with flowers sitting in the blood bath,” she said. “I could have cried this morning I was stressed right out.”

Complaint reports to management, she said, have gone without action. She said several top brass have given her and others assurances everything will be corrected but to no avail.

In June, residents came forward and alleged that a handful of new tenants were causing a commotion and not being adequately reprimanded for doing so.

Tenants said the rise in delinquency, according to one resident, drove out older, long-time people as they felt unsafe calling the tower home. They previously told battlefordsNOW the new crop of people is upsetting the culture of the building and pointed to other more suitable living arrangements in the city.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Social Services, which oversees the Saskatchewan Housing Authority and in turn the Battlefords Housing Authority, said they are aware of the situation and working to investigate tenants’ concerns and develop a plan to address them.

“A commissioner has been hired to be at the building overnight on the weekends. We have also sent a tenant relations specialist to work with the tenants to ensure tenants are abiding by their lease agreements, improving building safety and resolving conflict,” they wrote in a statement to battlefordsNOW.

They said each complaint and situation is different and must be investigated as such. They said corrective action taken on delinquent tenants can vary.

“Lease violations are followed up by the Housing Authority, therefore all tenants’ concerns should continue to be reported to the Housing Authority for follow up,” the ministry added. “To keep the building secure the tenants should not allow anyone they don’t know into the building.”

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr

by Tyler Marr

‘Someone is going to get killed’: Residents say situation remains out of control at housing complex

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