People who lived alongside high-risk clients of an agency hired by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to provide support say they had concerns about the behaviour of those tenants.

The clients — adults with complex needs who are frequent users of hospital emergency rooms — have been taken under the care of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. The health authority hired Teskey & Associates to provide support services to help them live in the community.

Some of the clients were living in a Sherbrook Street apartment building operated by a property management company.

Patricia Powell lived in the building but was not a client of Teskey & Associates. She said she was concerned about what she saw.

"People would fight in the hallways; there was blood all the time. Doors were being broke, windows were being broke. The tenants were throwing their food, their garbage out the windows. They weren't monitored right at all," Powell said.

Powell also had concerns about the level of support clients received.

Patricia Powell was a neighbour of clients in the WRHA special contracts program. She said she had concerns about the level of support clients received. (CBC) "They were filthy. The people couldn't care for themselves, they had no cleaning supplies. Some did better than others. Some were capable, some weren't," she said.

In the early morning of March 23, 2015, a fire broke out in one of the apartments where a Teskey & Associates client lived.

At the time, District Fire Chief Tom Stadnyk reported that a fire in a third floor suite caused heavy smoke, which trapped people in their apartments. The fire was knocked down quickly, but firefighters had to evacuate two people from the top floor.

A firefighter was injured in the process.

Trapped in apartment

One of the people trapped by the fire spoke with CBC News on condition of anonymity. He was not a client of Teskey & Associates.

"I was trapped in here," he said, from his third floor apartment. "The one across the hall, the one that was walking with a cane, had to go out the window and down a ladder … you know, three storeys."

He said he had worries about the escalating behaviour of the agency's client involved in the fire. She was under the care of the public guardian and trustee of Manitoba and her supervision had been delegated to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

"This girl was out of control and carrying on all night and roaming the halls and banging on people's doors," he said. "She should have been supervised 24 hours a day."

Lower-cost proposal

According to the incident report, Teskey & Associates managing director Harris Teskey said that seven weeks before the fire, the WRHA asked him to submit a proposal for the client that reflected a "lower cost due to lower risk."

The report said in the weeks leading up to the fire, the agency recorded 62 contacts with the client.

"Many of these entries contained descriptions of solvent being smelled in the apartment prior to the incident however there was never evidence of solvents being found in the apartment," the report said.

It is unclear from the report whether the WRHA was aware of this information before the fire.

The fire eventually was ruled accidental. Damage was estimated at $200,000.

It's unknown how many Teskey & Associates clients were living in the building at the time of the fire, but the WRHA incident report notes that in May 2015, there were 14.

They are among more than 300 adults in Winnipeg with complex needs who don't fall under existing health authority or provincial programs. They have mental health and behavioural issues, often in combination with other health problems. About 50 of them have been contracted to Teskey & Associates by the WRHA under "special contracts" to provide supports. They can be difficult clients to place.

In a statement to CBC News, Harris Teskey said the agency "does not supervise any individuals. We provide community based supports to them."

Contract not clear

The WRHA said the contract with Teskey & Associates was not clear about the agency's obligations, but an incident report into the fire noted the company was receiving enough money to provide 24-hour staffing at the building.

The health authority's incident report noted there were several attempts to house the woman involved in the fire but "past and present behaviours resulted in applications being denied or if accepted, she would be evicted shortly thereafter."

In the wake of several incidents, the WRHA is overhauling its special contracts with agencies to ensure clients are getting the right supports.

"Under the new model we will be assessing every six months to see if indeed, has the situation improved, is it the same, or is it even more difficult, where we need to look at changes?" said Real Cloutier, the WRHA's chief operating officer.

In his statement, Teskey said he welcomes commentary and feedback about the company's service arrangements with the WRHA.

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