Seniors’ group president baffled by 10-fold rent increase at Winnipeg community centre

Posted on August 12, 2024 by Peggy

The head of a Winnipeg organization that helps seniors stay active and social says they’re grappling with rising fees at the community centre they’ve been renting for the past decade.

Don Bodnarchuk, president of the non-profit Archwood 55 Plus, said the organization’s cost to rent space has gone from $5 per day to $50 in the past year.

Over the last decade, the group had been paying $100 a month to operate out of the Archwood Community Centre for four-and-a-half days each week between September and June. That amounted to $5 per day.

The centre increased the fee to $12.50 per day beginning in January, then doubled that to $25 in May.

“Then, on the second last day of June … we [were] advised that as of Sept. 1, our rent was going up to $50 a day,” Bodnarchuk told CBC News.

“Granted, the honorarium of $5 a day was way too low, but that’s a 10-fold increase from one September to the next September,” he said.

Archwood 55 Plus has also been advised it will no longer be able to use the facility on Friday mornings, according to Bodnarchuk.

He says his organization considered whether it should look for a new facility to run its programming out of, but the community club has a variety of amenities that are hard to find in one place, such as a gymnasium, multipurpose room, billiard room, kitchens, office spaces and storage.

“To go to another community centre, I’m not sure it’s going to be productive,” he said. “We looked at options within that, but we would have to rebuild some of our programs if we were going to do that.”

‘No longer sustainable’

A spokesperson for Archwood Community Centre confirmed to CBC that it intends to increase rent to $50 a day for the senior’s group.

The board reviewed what other community centres in the area charge in rental fees, finding that fair market value prices for gymnasiums are around $50-$60 per hour, and multipurpose rooms are $40-$60.

“Fifty dollars per day is still below the fair market value and works out to $8.33 per hour based on a six-hour day (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) for use of the entire building,” the community centre spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to CBC News.

While the centre receives money from the City of Winnipeg for general maintenance and utilities, its main source of income comes from rental fees, the spokesperson said.

“The reality is, since the pandemic costs have increased,” the statement said. “The rental fee for our other stakeholders has increased but the fee for the seniors is far less than market value and is no longer sustainable.”

A city spokesperson declined to speak on the dispute, as the facility is independently operated.

However, they said all City of Winnipeg community centres have been given inflationary increases to their universal funding formula grant this year, which is meant to cover utilities, repairs and maintenance and other operational costs.

Bodnarchuk understands that the community centre is stuck between a rock and a hard place but casts doubt on its claim of rising costs.

“They said that their costs had risen. Well, you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that their costs have doubled since May.”

Meanwhile, his organization’s membership is growing, currently sitting at just over 300 — more than double what it was just a few years ago. And nearly 90 per cent of those people participated in at least one activity per year, Bodnarchuk said.

“We’re trying to provide an alternative in the community that allows them social interaction, social prescribing interaction — basically exercise programs, cognitive challenges — all the things that keep elderly people healthy down the line, rather than hanging out in a drugstore,” he said.

Archwood 55 Plus is exploring its options going forward, including a meeting with the area’s city councillor, Bodnarchuk said.

They’ve also looked into provincial and federal grants, but found they’re mostly aimed toward starting new programs rather than sustaining existing ones.

The group is also considering whether to double membership fees but Bodnarchuk said about 14 per cent of members indicated they would not return if that were to happen.

He’s hoping for a corporate sponsor to help save the day.

“We can use all the help we can get at this point.”