Multiple homes in Swan River have been shuttered in the last month due to reported health and safety violations, which has forced the people living there to be abruptly evicted with a questionable future of where they are going to be able to live next.
One such resident was Brenda Cook, who was living in the white house at the corner of First Street South and Seventh Avenue South before she and everyone else in the building were unceremoniously told to leave following an investigation from Manitoba Justice that determined the house was an unsuitable habitation.
Cook was one of three people on the lease for the rental property, all three paying $500 each every month. Some of the people living there with her were her adult children and her niece.
“When I stayed in there I fixed that place up with my son Matthew helping me,” said Cook. “I had a group of friends that were helping me with everything, food, blankets, dishes.”
When Cook was told to leave, she was given 20 minutes to gather what she could and leave. Most of her belongings were left behind.
“I only took the jackets, the socks, the sweaters, my blanket and my pillow,” said Cook, noting she didn’t even take the blankets of her children.
“I went to my cousin’s because I feel safe with her. But I don’t really like staying there because there’s no heat or running water.”
Cook added that on the night after they got evicted, people were walking around all night and she was worried somebody would freeze. The night following the eviction on Nov. 23 was one of the coldest overnight periods in the last month.
“I even kind of forgot I was evicted because I said to (my son) Matthew, I just want to go home,” she said. “Oh wait, we don’t even have a home.”
Cook has struggled with addiction and substance abuse since 1999, but said she has been clean for three years now.
“I was using because of my common law husband running in and out with other women,” she said. “I started drinking.
“When he started leaving me longer and longer, I started using bad. And my mother taught me how to use these drugs. I was getting them from her.”
While she has since learned how to budget the disability cheque she does get, when she was living on harder times while in Brandon, she would stand on the street corner and sell herself to get by.
“I did everything for drugs and money and alcohol just to get by,” said Cook.
Cook also mentioned that her childhood wasn’t easy as well, having to take care of her parents and her brothers and sisters when she was only six years old because her parents were busy drinking every night.
“I blame my dad for my mom’s death because she got cancer from second-hand smoke and my mom wasn’t a smoker,” said Cook.
Cook had her first child when she was only 12 years old and more after that. However, she did end up pursuing an education and achieved her certification in Early Childhood Education Level 2.
“I wanted to work in Wuskwi Sipihk and wanted to become a homemaker there,” she said. “I can still have a job there, but I don’t have a way to get there.”
Though there were only three people on the lease for the White House, several others lived there and many more were present at the time the Department of Health did their inspection.
But, Cook insisted that the home was a safe and welcoming place.
“People thought we were cooking drugs in this house and I was thinking, ‘What? Come look around the house and check for yourself,’” she said. “(I would tell them) ‘If you think that’s what’s going on here, I don’t want you to come back.’”
Cook added that her son Matthew had to resort to throwing people out a couple of times.
Cook also noted her efforts to maintain the property, mowing the lawn and doing her best to fix windows that were broken, always being as resourceful as she could be.
The house was one of the places she could feel safe. While she generally isn’t bothered having to walk around Swan River, Cook explained how she has been harassed by others in town before and feared for her safety, having to defend herself.
One of the local blessings was having Meet Off Main when it was still funded and open, as it helped feed everyone.
“It helped a lot,” said Cook. “On weekends I had to cook for these people that come in and out to eat. I’d make bannock and soup, coffee and tea. We were trying to help each other.”
Despite hot meals no longer being on the menu, she added that the current CMHA supports in their new facility on Seventh Avenue North are good as well.
It remains to be seen what solutions will come for Swan River residents with vulnerable housing situations.