Neighbours credited for taking action against problem property

At least one local resident is reporting a success story in her neighbourhood's fight against a problem property.

Janey McGrath of North Battleford says her east side neighbourhood, located not far from Battlefords Union Hospital, banded together recently to successfully get rid of bad tenants at a house in their neighborhood.

The house, she said, had been taken over "by the drug patrol - people coming and going, the late nights, the parties, the vandalism," she said.

That particular residence had brought in traffic at all hours of the night, she said, and there were concerns there was prostitution happening there as well.

Not only that, but people in the rest of the neighbourhood had to clean up their own vandalized properties. "They were marking their territory on our fences," she said.

The situation alarmed everyone in the area. "Nobody was sleeping any more. They were living in fear," McGrath said.

However, McGrath said the community was able to do something to stop it.

All the nearby residents signed their names to a petition that went to city hall, and a copy of the city's bylaw on the issue was sent to the landlord, social services and the RCMP.

She told the News-Optimist last week they were able to get the cooperation they needed from the RCMP and other government officials. Among those responding was Premier Brad Wall, who sent a letter to her in support.

As for the RCMP, "they guided us on each and every issue that we had," she said.

One of the things the police advised was a paper trail to deal with the situation, she said.

As a result, about four or five of the neighbours got together and kept tabs on such things as suspicious vehicles that pulled up to the house, license plate numbers, and so on.

The RCMP also advised the residents to get a hold of SCAN - Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods - who came down to meet with them, she said.

Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods is a provincial organization whose mandate includes issues with problem properties. Their representative, Tim Ostoforoff, who was at last Monday's meeting on public safety at the Don Ross Centre, told reporters his organization has provincial remedies at their disposal to allow them to supercede the Residential Tenancies Act and evict tenants from properties who are causing problems with respect to crime, prostitution and other activities.

"Our investigators would come out and conduct an investigation into those activities," he said. The main difference between SCAN and the police is they operate based on the civil side of things, with a burden of proof based on the balance of probabilities.

McGrath said that what ended up happening in their particular neighbourhood in North Battleford is that the signed petition from residents was presented to the landlord, who gave the tenants an eviction notice.

The landlord was also advised to repair windows and do some upkeep on the grounds, such as to repair the windows, to comply with city bylaws and with the appearance of the rest of the neighbourhood.

McGrath said the landlord will be renting out the property to a new tenant. She made clear her expectation that there be no repeat of the issues seen earlier there.

She said she spoke with the landlord and said they welcome "anyone in our community."

"But I said we have zero tolerance for drugs, violence, anything - and if there's children, we're going to be watching," said McGrath.

To those living in other areas of the city, McGrath says that she recommends that if there is a bad house and you're not sure what to do to, speak to an RCMP member or find someone to help with the legal aspects.

McGrath sees what transpired among residents in her neighbourhood as a positive success story of people stepping up, and encourages others to follow their example. She particularly urges other neighbourhoods to work together to solve their issues.

"Talk to your neighbours, work with your neighbours, and you've got to follow through 100 per cent," McGrath said.