Glen Elm evictions begin as residents try to save their community

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While residents continue last-ditch efforts to keep their east Regina community together, Marleen Obrigewitsch can’t help but feel demoralized as the neighbourhood is being dismantled around her.

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Although a third offer to buy the Glen Elm Mobile Home Community was submitted on Monday, the first eviction deadline passed on April 30. As a result, some occupants have already departed while others are preparing to move elsewhere.

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Some say they have nowhere to go.

“I just want to find a place. I really do. Somewhere where I can be happy,” Obrigewitsch said while seated in the living room between her two cats.

She was among 14 Glen Elm homeowners given an eviction notice on Jan. 27 due to “critical issues” with the water main and sewage infrastructure. Obrigewitsch told the property management office on Easter Monday that she hadn’t yet found alternate accommodations and wasn’t willing to go to a shelter.

According to Obrigewitsch, she sent in her monthly rent cheque for May, but it was returned to her. The long-time resident says she told the property managers they would need to file an official eviction notice through the Office of Residential Tenancies in order to get her out.

Obrigewitsch has considered buying a house elsewhere in the Glenelm neighbourhood, but her eviction has placed additional pressure on the situation. She’s lived in the community for 26 years and either walks or takes the bus to nearby spots for almost all her necessities.

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“Everything I need is right here: shopping, (family) doctors, dentists, eye doctors — everything,” said Obrigewitsch, adding that she doesn’t work due to brittle bone disease and has been dealing with depression since the start of the year.

Her home is one of the last remaining in her row. Others have either moved to another mobile home community south of Ring Road, sold their homes or abandoned them.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Social Services says it “has and will continue to respond to inquiries regarding programs and services” such as the housing benefit, social housing and income assistance.

“The ministry is in direct contact with income assistance clients who reside at the Glen Elm Trailer Court to ensure that they are supported throughout this situation,” a government spokesperson told the Leader-Post in an email Monday. “For eligible income assistance clients, the ministry can provide relocation benefits and other benefits that may be available to them on a case-by-case basis.”

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Regarding evictions, the Leader-Post also reached out to the City of Regina and Glen Elm Properties but neither responded before publication.

This is the first round of evictions to hit the community after several weeks of seeking a solution with the help of the city and province. Most other residents will be required to leave before the second wave on June 30.

“Anxiety is running high. Everyone is feeling very stressed,” said Randall Edge, president of the Glen Elm Retirement Community Residence Association (GERCRA). “It’s not a comfortable situation. It’s not a happy situation. People are taking away your homes.”

GERCRA represents a group of homeowners who’ve banded together in an attempt to purchase the property.

The first and second offers — delivered with the intent of forming a condo-style ownership structure — have elapsed in recent weeks. The association’s realtor presented the owner with another offer Monday to buy the property in its current condition for more than $15 million, according to Edge.

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As homeowners try to put together an enticing bid, the Glen Elm neighbourhood is slowly being deserted. The damp spring ground shows tread marks from flatbed trucks that relocated a few units. Some have been gutted and left vacant while the enduring homeowners are forced to watch their community deteriorate into a shell of its former self.

“Despite all that, our group continues each week to actively present to the property owner an offer to purchase,” said Edge. “And we’re doing this in the spirit to try and bring this state of madness to a stop.”

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