Some Sherbrook Inn tenants evicted months after new owner said no plans to kick anyone out

Some peopleliving at a hotel in Winnipeg's West Broadway neighbourhoodhave been evicted months after a new owner said he had no intention of kicking anyone off the property.

On Friday, the West Broadway Community Organization issued a news release sayingeight tenants of the 33-unit Sherbrook Inn, which has been a neighbourhood fixture for decades,had been evicted.Three others had received notices of eviction three months after Royal Albert Hotel owner Neil Soorsma took over the buildingon the corner of Sherbrook Street and Westminster Avenue.

Soorsma said Sunday between six and seven tenants of the building had been served eviction notices after they failed to pay the rent.

Shortly after he bought the Sherbrook Inn,the owner had told CBC News he had no plans to evict residents. On Sunday, Soorsma said he couldn't let everybody live in the building for free.

"People that have paid their rent, they're living there, and I have no issues with them at all," he said.

"The other ones, if their rent was paid, they could stay too. It's a business. We need to pay the bills."

Michelle Doreis one of the people getting evicted. She's set to move out of the building this week.

"There's people that have been here for 16, 17 years," Dore said, adding that about 17 people lived there before the evictions.

"We were a family. We were a community here. Since Neil took over, it's not like that."

Dore, who had worked at the inn asa front desk manager,said Soorsma had agreed to honour an agreement she and othershad with the previous ownership, in which some of the pay they got working therewould go toward their rent if they were behind.

A letter dated July 22 sent by Soorsma to CBC News advised tenants that as of Aug. 1, he would no longer be offering the option of working in the building in exchange for paying the rent.

Tenants say they're owed pay

The owner told CBC News a contract signed by the tenants specified there were no outstanding amounts owed from before he took over the inn.

But the West Broadway Community Organization said in the release some tenants say they're still owed pay from the owner.

Dore said the owner had offered two month's rent for cleaning the hotel kitchen, but she didn't get any compensation for the work. She said another tenant whose hearing with the residential tenancy branch is on Monday had worked 682 hours for the owner, but that he got less than $2 per hour for his rent.

Soorsma"said I was doing a great job. At the same time, he'd already applied for me to be evicted," Dore said.

"People, they don't have a place to go. They don't have money to go anywhere. They took away our income as well,right? Because most of the people are or were ex-employees."

Soorsmasaid thatwhile he had given some people jobs to pay off the rent,the work wasn'tcompleted.

"Anybody who has been evicted, I'll make it clear, it's under the process of the law," he said. "There's been hearings held, evidence was presented and if somebody was evicted, it was because they didn't pay the rent."

Dore said theWest Broadway Community Organization has been financially helping her and other tenants. She said they've paid for her damage deposit as well as some of her moving expenses.

The organization said in the release it's "calling on the landlord to allow tenants to stay and make arrangement for missing rent."

Dore, who lost her hearing as well as her appeal, said she has no other recourse, but that she will still represent another tenant on Monday.

The Sherbrook Inn hotel closed in the winter. In addition to the suites, it had a bar and a beer vendor.

Soorsmatold CBC News in June he wanted to turn it back into a full-service hotel, though he acknowledged there was a need for low-income housing in the city.