SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — A Sault Ste. Marie man says he fears for his life every time he enters or leaves his downtown apartment due to the squatters who have taken over the building.
Steve Masters lives in a rental unit inside 138 Gore St. and said late last week people had been squatting in two of the apartments and the basement, and a small encampment had been established underneath the staircase behind the building.
“Literally, they’ve infested the building. There were six of them in the hallway as I was trying to get to the door,” Masters told SooToday. “They’re setting up camp again — tarps are stretched out under the stairs.”
Masters said people living at the former encampment at the corner of Gore Street and Albert Street East were driven elsewhere after it was torn down by Sault Police on July 28 — in conjunction with social services, community outreach workers, paramedics and the city’s public works department — amid growing concerns around health and public safety.
See related: The backstory behind the encampment at Gore and Albert
“I feel like I’m under siege, and seeing the tarps being set up again when I left for work this morning, that just makes me sick to my stomach,” said Masters. “Why, after going through all the effort of breaking down the camp, are they letting it happen again?
“There was no follow through after they tore the camp down. I swear, their concerns for public safety and health left when those vehicles left the parking lot,” he continued. “Police have been fantastic, but they can only do so much.”
Masters said that after obtaining police escorts in and out of his apartment last Monday and Tuesday, one of the squatters threatened to throw him down a flight of stairs Wednesday “and kick my ass if I came back.”
“I walked out my door the other night, and the hallway was soaking wet with urine and vomit,” said Masters, adding that he’s also found human feces in the building’s front entrance.
RWC Management is the residential property management company that began managing 138 Gore St. in September 2021.
In an email to SooToday an RWC employee said the “building was invaded by drug addicts and trespasser[s]” over the summer, resulting in a plumber and a tenant being attacked, in addition to other staff members.
“We have gotten the police involved several times and they clear them out, we board up the place and they come right back,” Fabian said.
RWC Management said last week it was working with the police to "clear out these drug addicts, board up the place and get a plumber in there again.”
The property management company also said it would offer Masters unspecified compensation and, possibly, relocation to another property and members of Sault Ste. Marie Police Service were seen speaking with individuals at the makeshift shelter under the staircase behind 138 Gore St., last Thursday.
Masters told SooToday then he was at a “breaking point.”
“Perhaps when more people are aware of the situation, the city will step up and take a more active role and see the situation to its end rather than just wash their hands and walk away. I don’t know if that’s possible,” he said.
Twice in the past month that the building was without running water due to copper piping being stripped from it. Masters went without running water for four days at one point a couple of weeks ago before the property owners resolved the issue. He says his water recently stopped working again.
“I’m hauling five-gallon jugs of water up so I can fill my toilet, so I can at least flush it and clean myself,” Masters said, adding that he hadn’t been able to do dishes or laundry in the days the building has been without water. “The only running water I have right now is the water running through the leaking roof, which I am really not expecting them to address anytime soon.”
Freddie Pozzebon, chief building official for the City of Sault Ste. Marie said the municipality is currently in the process of issuing an order to remedy the violation to the property management company under the city's property standards bylaw.
"At this time, we cannot speak to the matter due to confidentially," Pozzebon informed SooToday via email. "We are pursuing the matter of no water service and other issues with the building."
James Hopkin is a reporter for Village Media's SooToday.
