As more vacant homes in Winnipeg go up in flames, advocates want city to act

An ominous message was scrawled on the front door of a vacant home that burned this weekend on Stella Avenue.

“I wouldn’t go in if I were you,” a message of warning after three more homes burned in Winnipeg in the past 10 days.

Housing advocates are urging the city to deal with a housing crisis they say is only getting worse.

“It’s worse than I’ve ever seen it, but it needs to be dealt with,” said advocate Sel Burrows.

“We have 120 homes that aren’t registered as vacant in Winnipeg, on top of the 560 to 700 vacant buildings that are registered with the City of Winnipeg. It’s an epidemic.”

In the past few weeks, through numerous tours of vacant, abandoned, and dilapidated homes, CityNews has seen firsthand the vacant building problem in Winnipeg.

Damaged vacant home in Winnipeg. (Credit: CityNews/Mike Albanese)

Burrows and a team volunteers have put forth recommendations to the city to address the growing issue.

“They’ve gotten behind, they can’t keep up,” he said. “They’re wonderful people keeping the city looking as good as possible. They need help.”

These recommendations include increasing city staffing levels to board up, and check in on these homes, as well as tightening deadlines vacant homeowners have between inspections.

And vacant buildings are leading to fires, possibly due to arson.

“Somebody put the fire on at 10:30 at night, then firemen come, then leave, and 2:30 in the morning, fire again,” said a resident near a home that burned on Alexander Avenue.

“Yesterday the fire department was here, they extinguished the fire,” added resident Mohammed Noor. “This is the fourth time in a week. We need help, need these houses demolished.”

Damaged vacant home in Winnipeg. (Credit: CityNews/Mike Albanese)

Noor says two homes on his block have been vacant and rotting for about six or seven years. He tried to change that.

“We went to a realtor, gave them an offer through a lawyer,” he said. “They give us back the cheque, saying the property is now for the city. The city is not doing anything.”

CityNews confirmed the city does in fact own the two properties in question on Alexander Avenue. It’s not clear how long the city has owned them for.

Scott Wilkinson, the assistant chief of community risk reduction with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, says vacant buildings are a risk to the community and his staff.

Damaged vacant home in Winnipeg. (Credit: CityNews/Mike Albanese)

Sixty vacant buildings burned in Winnipeg in 2021.

“We have had three vacant house fires in the last 10 days,” said Wilkinson. “It is an ongoing issue that we have with arson risk in those vacant properties.

“We would obviously like to see buildings turned over, and efforts made to utilize them better, that they’re not derelict, that they become affordable housing or enhancements to the community. If they are totally derelict it would be far safer for those buildings to be totally remodeled and put to use or fully demolished to not pose further risk.”

Winston Yee, with the City of Winnipeg’s by-law enforcement services, says officials are reviewing Burrows’ recommendations.

Yee says at this time of year they increase seasonal staff anyway to deal with a rise in 311 calls about vacant buildings. He says in the last five years, the city has eliminated 1,300 homes from the vacant building list, but new buildings continue to become vacant.

“It’s not a static number,” he said. “We intake a couple hundred a year, and remediate a few hundred a year as well. Ideally we would love to see no vacant buildings, that things are remediated and put back on the market, but the same time we have an obligation to work with property owners to advise them on what the issues are and to give them an opportunity to remediate and take some action.”

Yee says the city is looking at options to deal with vacant homes, in partnership with Winnipeg fire, police and other city officials.