From left, Rain Clark, Shane Grimes, Max Stafford, Tim Goldsworthy and Jason Doan in front of Harmony Active Living in Canyonville.

CANYONVILLE — Residents of Harmony Active Living, formerly Forest Glen, are feeling a sense of hope since Redemptive Ministries stepped in to help at the end of March.

But some fear it’s a sense of false hope.

“I’m very sad that Mr. Stafford has given these people what I consider to be false hope at this point,” Canyonville Mayor Christine Morgan said of Redemptive Ministries.

Pastor Max Stafford, of Redemptive Ministries, offered to help the tenants following an announcement from Morgan that the building’s water will be shut off May 1 — a decision made during a March 21 city council meeting.

The building had six months of unpaid bills at the time amounting to $32,000 in debt, which has continued to grow as services are still being provided, according to Morgan.

Morgan said, as of early last week, nobody had paid for the water bill, which is now more than $40,000.

Shane Grimes, CEO of Redemptive Ministries, though not listed on the Oregon Business Registry, is helping Stafford.

Grimes said Jerry Reeves, the property manager, stepped down from his role Friday. Redemptive Ministries decided to step in for the best interest of building owner Terry Emmert and the tenants.

Reeves said he doesn’t know what transpired between Stafford and Emmert because he has gotten two different stories from each.

He said he stepped back since the initial Feb. 9 immediate closure of Harmony Active Living, because Emmert breached their agreement and he no longer wanted to continue their business venture.

Grimes said Redemptive Ministries does have a verbal agreement with Emmert, but no written contracts have been made.

“I’m not going to put myself in a position where there’s a lawsuit,” Grimes said when asked what is in their agreement. Grimes said she would not “disclose any of that to anyone” because she did not want to speak on behalf of Emmert.

Grimes said Emmert was in Mexico during her interview with The News-Review.

Criticisms all aroundWhile criticisms have poured in calling the city “horrible people” for shutting off the water, Morgan said, “Probably the best thing we’ve ever done for these people is for them to find another place to live.”

Agencies have been “bending over backward,” according to Morgan, to help residents find new homes, but have often been declined as the residents would rather just stay put. Much of the false hope described comes from a claim in Stafford’s Facebook video posted March 31, Easter Sunday, describing the building as only needing a bit of maintenance.

“Nothing could be further than that from the truth,” Morgan said.

Rain Clark, former manager of Harmony Active Living, said many who criticized the ongoing efforts at Harmony Active Living don’t see the volunteers or tenants as actual people, but rather as numbers.

“These people care. They’re all stepping up. They’re all trying to save the situation,” Clark said.

Stafford did not have much to say, but said everybody — tenants and volunteers — all play a part in keeping the residence running.

Morgan said many people are ignorant of what’s “really happening” inside the facility, many of whom have yet to look inside and tour the dilapidated space.

“They tend to be social warriors, but they don’t really understand,” Morgan said.

Reeves said, “It wouldn’t necessarily have been a big deal, but my problem is that Max went in there meeting with all of the locals that are already in there and started promising them a whole bunch of stuff that he’s going to do. Why is the false hope of Max going in there, screwing around with everything, good?”

Reeves believes it’s a cat-and-mouse game. If Redemptive Ministries doesn’t come up with the funds by May 1, he believes Emmert will tell them to step down.

“He’ll send him down the road, and then meanwhile, everybody did all this for nothing,” Reeves said. He feels it side-rails the efforts the government and various agencies have put into helping the Harmony Active Living residents.

Happening nowGrimes said she got involved in Harmony Active Living because she has 24 years of landlord experience, is involved in ministry, actively goes to church and is a part of the recovery community.

“My interest is in the management that has been really treated badly. They’ve been dumped to try to make decisions that they’re not qualified to do,” Grimes said.

Clark said working with Reeves and Emmert is like “being caught between two warring factions.”

Grimes said she hopes the outcome is Emmert would work with Redemptive Ministries and create a deal where the community could use the building. Depending on the deal Redemptive Ministries has with Emmert, the nonprofit would be interested in taking over as the property manager.

As the water will be shut off on May 1, leaving less than 30 days to rehome the nearly 40 tenants, Grimes said Redemptive Ministries plans to collect rent and pay the water bill, that way Emmert can have a “clean slate” when he returns.

Emmert could then keep the building and “raise it up” or legally evict the tenants, she said.

Grimes said they have not yet collected rent, but it will be paid as the same amounts the tenants were paying before the closure, without the cost of a meal plan.

She explained that two people will collect rent — checks, cash and money orders — which will then be put into a safe, taken and tracked to the bank by two people and likely put into a bank account under Redemptive Ministries.

Reeves said he and Emmert are the only ones who should be collecting rent if anyone were to, but it’s in limbo right now because Reeves decided to step away. He kept an account through Harmony Active Living LLC open for those volunteering rent payments which would pass through to Emmert to pay the back bills.

A few people, who were homeless, have moved into the building and will pay rent, according to Grimes.

Reeves said Emmert told him Redemptive Ministries cannot move people in.

It seems much of the situation is hard for anyone to understand. Stories told by the building owner compared to the property manager don’t seem to make sense.

“You just don’t know who to believe anymore,” Morgan said of Emmert and Reeves. “I just kind of let them talk, and then we see how it all meshes out here, and none of it, shall we just say, the stories are not the same.”

And nobody seems to have an answer as to why neither Emmert nor Reeves have posted eviction notices.

Grimes said both Reeves and Emmert told her “it would not be wise” to evict the tenants.