Unsafe Bemidji subsidized housing building evacuated, residents say they feel hopeless
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All 47 residents of Red Pine Estates, a Bemidji subsidized housing facility, were evacuated from the building after being given just six days to vacate the premises. The city ordered the evacuation June 30, after discovering it was structurally unsound.
However, emptying the building took a large community effort. Volunteers showed up in droves to move people and their belongings and the Bemidji State University football team even lent their strength to carry heavy items including tenants' furniture.
A line of pickup trucks arrived to take boxes to storage. It seemed unlikely at times that everyone would be out by the 4 p.m. Thursday deadline set by the city. But when the time rolled around there was only one individual on the third floor who eventually left about 20 minutes later.
The executive director of the Nameless Coalition of the Homeless, Reed Olson, says city inspectors discovered the structural problem after investigating a report of a burst pipe in the three-story building.
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“They noticed that the floor trusses were faulty and then they had a series of structural engineers take a look at it and everyone agreed it was a catastrophic failure,” Olson said.
He said the problems may be the result of shoddy construction when the facility was built in 1980.
Olson agreed with the city's decision that the safest option was to evacuate the building before someone got hurt. However, he points out this is the fourth subsidized housing building to close in Bemidji in the last nine months, and he estimates 100 families have lost their homes as a result.
The city is already short of housing overall, and these closures are not helping. About 60 percent of Bemidji residences are rentals, double the 30 percent state average.
Sense of hopelessness
Olson was one of the many volunteers and advocates who turned up at Red Pine Estates to help move residents and their belongings.
Most of the renters are either elderly or people with disabilities and many said they have nowhere to go. While they expressed gratitude for all the public support, many reported feeling left hopeless by the evacuation.
Several expressed anger at the building’s owner, Golden Valley-based Schuett Companies, saying it should have done more to help them.
Tenant Lynnette Rex broke down several times as she described the situation.
“A lot of shock, how can they do this? How is this legal?” she said. “How can you evict 47 vulnerable adults? I have multiple sclerosis. This is causing an exacerbation. They are bringing me a wheelchair because I am having a hard time walking and standing up.”
Rex said some of her neighbors were confused about what was happening.
“There was one lady here who said ‘When do we get to come home? I’ve lived here for 22 years. This is my home.’ She's not coming back here,” Rex said.
Some residents were booked into local hotels for the night but say they don't know where they will stay after that.
During the evacuation the corridors were jammed with people's possessions. The city told the residents not to remove their belongings because of concerns that the weight of the items combined with the weight of people helping out might result in the building becoming even more unstable.
However, residents at another facility in the city who were forced to leave their belongings lost almost everything when the building later caught fire. So many Red Pine Estates residents were intent on getting everything out.
What happens next is unclear. Several residents said they had received their damage deposits back. But for some, including Lynnette Rex, that money had gone to getting boxes and other supplies for the evacuation. She said she now does not have sufficient funds to get into another apartment.
