Robin Lacey has given up.
The 53-year-old purchased the First United Church on Brock Street in June 2011. He had intended to make the former church into a six apartment building in order to help deal with the city’s homeless issue. He said he tried to go through all the steps with the city in order to make it happen.
But in February, officials with Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue closed the building down.
Without any support and with a possible $50,000 fine from the fire marshal for each person staying at the former church, Lacey said he’s giving up.
“There’s no support and it turns out I’m the bad guy in this situation, which I take responsibility for what’s happened here,” Lacey said.
“Had I known then what I know now I would never have started trying to help people in need because it takes deep pockets with no help. I was naïve in thinking that if I gave people a chance to straighten up and get ahead of their lives they would appreciate it. It seemed like that was working.”
There were some success stories but that doesn’t pay the bills, he said.
He approached the city in the fall to address the homeless issue and things appeared to be going well. Lacey said his phone was ringing off the hook with interested partners, groups and associations.
He had the building zoned for six bedrooms but within a week, 28 people started to call the building their home.
He said it got out of control.
“I approached the city late last year and explained to them that the cart sort of came before the horse,” he said.
“I needed help with the process because of the people involved. They told me to expedite my applications but the next day unfortunately the fire marshal came in and shut the place down because it wasn’t up to fire code.”
When the building closed down, he transferred the tenants to his hotel in Kakabeka Falls. That also met with an eviction notice. He said the Oliver-Paipoonge Township told him that he had to evict everyone because it wasn’t up to code. Lacey disagreed with their decision.
Lacey said he’s lost tens of thousands of dollars because of the cost to run the building, replacing stolen goods and possibility facing a large fine.
“They were good people and they seemed to be cooperating,” he said. “But then I had serious theft issues. I did contact the Thunder Bay Police to place trespassing notices but that seemed impossible. As I was trying to do that I was continually being robbed.”
Lacey said he will try to turn the building into what he originally wanted – a six luxury apartment suite.
