Tenants slam Alta.-based landlord, protest rent increases

Charlie Medd wasn’t ready for another adventure last October, when she moved out of the Wolseley Avenue apartment she had called home for 15 years.

Medd said life at Lincoln Apartments began to change after Wingspan Properties, an Alberta-based landlord, bought the building, made minor cosmetic changes and increased rent. She felt the changes were intended to push renters — many of them on fixed incomes — out the door.

“At some point, I got scared. I’d been there 15 years,” Medd said about the threat of rent increases. “I’d just painted my whole apartment. But when I heard that there’s going to be that many people homeless, I thought, ‘I’m too old for another adventure.’

“It felt like you were getting a nudge out the door. Like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to be doing this, and your rent is going to go up every year.’”

Nearly a year after leaving, Medd was among dozens of protesters who lined the sidewalk outside Premier Wab Kinew’s constituency office on Osborne Street Friday afternoon, calling on the Residential Tenancies Branch to freeze disputed rent increases until tenants have a chance to challenge them.

“And what can Wingspan do? They can get the hell outta Winnipeg,” Stefan Hodges of the West Broadway Tenants Committee said to a big cheer.

Tenants at eight Winnipeg apartment buildings owned by Wingspan are pushing back against rent increases of between 54 and 125 per cent, arguing they should be allowed to challenge the hikes before being required to pay them. Time isn’t on the side of some renters, with some of the disputed rent increases scheduled to take effect Nov. 1.

The Tenants said Wingspan acquired as many as 30 Winnipeg apartment buildings last year. Since the summer, residents at eight properties say they have received notices of significant rent increases and have also raised concerns about renovations, entries into units without notice and threats that existing leases could be terminated.

They argue the increases do not reflect the capital or operating costs that would justify increases above Manitoba’s annual rent guideline, which is 1.8 per cent for 2026 and is set at three per cent for 2027.

Landlords can apply to the Residential Tenancies Branch for permission to increase rents above the annual guideline based on several factors, including capital expenditures and increased operating costs. None of the buildings fit into other exemptions under existing RTB policies, including building ages or certain rent thresholds.

“The injustice to me is that they haven’t been given the opportunity to fight this, challenge it, and stay in their homes,” said Aidan Wilson, a tenant at 152-154 Maryland St., who is fighting his own increase.

Wilson said he reached out to the RTB on Aug. 19, and received a response last week that said the branch would get in contact with him.

Wilson, who is getting married next year, said he and his partner now have to rethink their expenses.

“The money that’s going to have to go to rent now would probably pay for a fifth of our wedding,” he said.

At the centre of the dispute, organizers said, is the RTB policy that requires tenants to pay the rent sought by a landlord while an above-guideline application is being considered. They argue the practise can leave tenants facing months of significantly higher payments before they have an opportunity to dispute the increase.

The tenants said the policy was overturned by the Residential Tenancies Commission in a 2019 decision but continues to be applied by the branch.

“Working people can’t afford to pay an extra $400 or $500 a month in rent,” said Maggie A. Clark, an organizer with the West Broadway Tenants Committee, who have been contacted by the RTB and Public Service Delivery Minister Mintu Sandhu in the last 24 hours.

“Whereas corporate landlords like Wingspan, who use other people’s housing as an investment opportunity, surely have the spare capital to be able to take the hit from a few extra months of deferred rent increases.”

Tenant associations representing six buildings sent a joint letter to the director of the branch on Sept. 4 asking that the increases be frozen until tenants have an opportunity to appeal. They said some residents have already moved rather than face the increases.

Wingspan did not respond to a request for comment.

“The situation sounds awful,” Kinew said at an unrelated news conference in Selkirk on Friday.

The premier said rent control legislation is being held up by the opposition Progressive Conservatives, claiming that Obby Khan’s party is hoping to get donations from landlords and the people who represent them.

“Having fairness for renters during an affordability crisis is very much on our agenda,” Kinew said. “People are upset. Understandably so. My inclination is like, ‘Let’s get the pitchforks. I’ll join you guys.’”

Medd knows what that displacement can mean. She said her former building at 796 Wolseley Ave., was not only affordable but a good place to live. Over 15 years, neighbours had built the kind of community where people looked out for one another.

“It’s an old building, obviously, but we had a really strong community,” Medd said. “You’d find jars of spaghetti sauce on your doorstep and things like that.”

Leaving also meant giving up the garden she tended to outside the building and moving into a newer — but much smaller — apartment.

“I left my home of 15 years because of this mess,” Medd said. “It’s imperative that our government protects those of us who aren’t able to find other housing.”

— with files from Morgan Modjeski

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca