Regina seniors seek help from province over safety concerns in, around their home

Some Regina seniors are sounding the alarm over a lack of safety measures in and around their home and are calling on the province for help.

Marlene Robins is a current resident of the Mary Helen Herchmer, a seniors housing unit complex that consists of more than 100 units. Robins started a petition signed by 85 tenants regarding safety concerns in their building and near their complex.

“We get intruders in that somehow get in and sleep in the stairwell,” she said. “In February, what we call a harpoon, which was discovered at eight in the morning. It was the knife attached to a broomstick…. Then we had unspent gun shells, and we had an intruder who jimmied the front door with a dummy bar, and he was found on the ninth floor. He was escorted out of the building by the police.”

Robins said an assault also happened on a tenant. The list of incidents continues to grow, which drove Robins to start the petition to have something done, as many tenants have expressed concerns for their safety.

“We don’t feel secure,” she said. “It just seemed that things sort of went from bad to worse.”

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services was given a letter along with the petition from Robins and tenants in her building.

“We’ll listen to concerns and then look into things,” Minister Gene Makowsky said. “The Saskatchewan Housing Corporation will do that work along with the local housing authority…. Whatever comes forward from this meeting, they’ll listen to the concerns and come up with (an) action plan to help residents feel safer and to ensure they are safe.”

The Mary Helen Herchmer is a property of the Regina Housing Authority, and will lead a meeting on Thursday with members from the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation. Robins hopes this meeting is where their concerns will be heard.

“There’s no place to go to voice your complaints other than to regain the housing authority and hope that they pass it forward to Saskatchewan housing,” Robins said.