Last February after a year of living in fear and having to drive around the block a few times after I got home from an evening shift to make sure that my neighbours were not outside making a drug deal before pulling into my parking lot I moved my family into a much better housing situation. It never ceases to amaze me now how many times in the news it is reported that there was a beating, murder, drug bust etcetera in any of a number of Manitoba Housing complexes here in the city of Winnipeg.
The aim of Manitoba Housing was at one time to provide sustainable,not for profit, suitable housing for those residents and families of Manitoba who for whatever reason were not able to afford decent housing on their own. This included those on welfare, single income earning families, those on disability and others who could not work or were underpaid and needed subsidized housing. However, Manitoba Housing complexes at least in this city have become nothing but a nightmare for those who have no other options and a haven for illicit criminal activity for those who choose to abuse the system.
Take for instance the recent Meth lab bust in the Tuxedo Housing complex. This happens to be the complex that I moved my family out of and for me this story recently reported in the Winnipeg Sun and Winnipeg Free Press newspapers brings a feeling of distaste and ire for having to have lived in the same complex as the lowlifes that felt it was ok to endanger their neighbours and their own children. However, this also brings no surprise whatsoever. It was a daily thing living in that complex to see vandalism of peoples cars in the parking lot in broad daylight by the children of uncaring and missing parents living there, drug deals out behind my unit completely out in the open, pot smokers standing around smoking joints with no fear of reprecussion, children and teens dismanteling stolen bikes for the fun of it and then tossing the remains in the trash, and the list goes on. I refused to be one of the people there who let this kind of thing happen without reporting it and regularily did. Only once when I called the Housing after hours contact number did security ever show up. This despite repeated calls. Never did I see any representative from Manitoba Housing deal with any of my complaints including those that were of blatently criminal activities. All of the people of whom complaints were made are still living in that complex.
Add to these issues were two more completely unaddressed reasons for our departure from this housing complex. The first was that my daughter was routinely being threatened by our neighbours children who decided for whatever reason they hated her. My poor daughter could not even step out of her own house without me being with her. The second and certainly one of the biggest reasons that we moved was the constant battle with Manitoba Housing to spray for bugs. Yes, disgusting as it is having a home infested with beetles, grain beetles, spiders and yes the dreaded bed bugs, Manitoba Housing refused for 3 months to acknowledge there was a problem and I had to fight continuously and threaten to go public before they finally conceded and sprayed our apartment. After the second round of spraying I said to hell with it and moved - not before I saturated everything I owned with raid. Thankfully the bugs have not followed us and we now have a safe, affordable home in a great neighbourhood with great neighbours.
Until the powers that be in Manitoba Housing start cracking down on the wrong doers living within the housing complexes, and go back to what housing was meant to be, housing will continue to be nothing but an embarasment to the residents that really need to be there and the rest of the city that suffers from the spill over effect of the riffraf that occupies some of their suites. Having on site management and 24/7 security guards AT EACH SITE and not shared amongst half the city is the bare minimum needed to start. Of course the likelyhood of this ever happening is slim to none as poor people tend to be the least likely to speak up for themselves.
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