Apartment heating broken for 10 days, leaving Saskatoon refugee, Indigenous families chilled during cold snap

Refugee and Indigenous families have been wearing winter coats and boots, huddling under blankets inside their Saskatoon apartment during much of the record cold snap after the heat in their homes broke.

The three-storey Appleby Drive building has been without central heat for most of the past 10 days as wind chill values outside reached –50. Residents were moved out Thursday to hotels after the fire inspector was called.

Advocates say the problem should have been fixed much sooner.

"It was very hard for them to keep warm. It felt like nobody cared," said Bwe Doh Soe, a local bank employee and volunteer for fellow Karen refugees who fled persecution in Southeast Asia. He offered to translate for some of the Karen apartment residents, who spoke to CBC News Saturday afternoon on condition their names were not used.

Residents say the heater began to cut out intermittently several days before Christmas. It was cold but manageable. They first raised concerns with the management of Calgary-based Mainstreet Equity Corp. Dec. 27 when it stopped completely.

Residents say they were given one space heater per unit. They say they were told it would be fixed right away and they should be patient. The small heaters didn't help, they said. A couple of residents left and moved in with relatives elsewhere in Saskatoon, but most had nowhere else to go, they said.

Management then told them the holidays were making it difficult to find experts and parts for the repairs. A second space heater was distributed, but again made little difference, they said.

Eventually, someone contacted the fire department. They said a fire marshal arrived Tuesday. The building was declared unsafe and residents were moved to various hotels Thursday.

Residents aren't sure when they'll be able to head home.

Saturday afternoon, CBC News went to the apartment in Saskatoon's Meadowgreen neighbourhood to see if repair work had begun. A sign on the front door said the building was closed and "no one is allowed inside until further notice."

A security guard answered the buzzer. He said he was the only one in the building and directed questions to the Mainstreet site manager for Saskatoon.

That manager referred questions to the company's Calgary office. They declined an interview request but emailed a response saying the "comfort and safety of our tenants is our highest priority."

They tried to fix the problem immediately, but "it was impossible to complete this repair within an ideal timeframe due to COVID-caused staffing shortages, supply chain delays, and continued extreme weather conditions."

They say they complied with local authorities and moved residents to the hotels, giving them gift cards and food.