‘It’s like a different world’ next to boarding house
Complaints abound about home in Riverside where needles found
A house in Riversdale is a source of angst for home and business owners in the neighbourhood, and for a former tenant.
Complaints lodged about the home at 316 Avenue C South range from used needles and garbage littering the back alley to neighbours who say they have been threatened by tenants. A former tenant also says she was illegally evicted by the landlord and property owner, Mei Zehn Liu Neizhen.
The multi-use property serves as a boarding house for up to eight occupants who share a bathroom on the second floor. An established commercial enterprise and a onebedroom suite are located on the main floor. The city’s residential zoning bylaw does not require that boarders be provided with access to cooking facilities. The two-storey building looks like a regular business from the front; a sand-coloured brick facade houses a vape shop. But a look at the dilapidated back entrance tells a different story.
Peeling and faded paint of several colours merges with tiny, albeit new, windows. A metal staircase leads up to the second-floor entrance, where scrap wood has been cobbled together to create makeshift walls leaning on the slanted rooftop.
The house’s north wall is made of concrete blocks. Three small bedroom windows are placed high in the walls, where the concrete gives way to peeling blue paint.
UNNERVED NEIGHBOURS
Peggy Finn, who owns a home next door, said a man from the boarding house cornered her in the back alley in mid-February.
Finn said she had parked behind her house and was struggling to open the gate against the snow. She said a man approached her and told her to stop watching the building next door. He continued talking to her and walked closer, cornering her between the fence and her vehicle, the 60-year-old said.
“I was nervous he was going to hurt me. He only had to take a couple of steps and I don’t know what I would have done. He did go away, finally, but I haven’t parked back there since.”
“This is the last time I want something like this to happen,” said her son Adam Finn, who operates a business from her home.
Peggy Finn said problems with the neighbours have been ongoing since she bought the property in November 2016.
“The people that live there don’t seem to have any respect for us and maybe even for the neighbourhood,” she said.
On one of his first nights staying in the house, Adam said he was threatened with sexual assault by people living next door. A few men were standing on the front lawn, yelling at him, he said.
“They called me a faggot and asked me if I worshipped God or if I worshipped c***.”
He locked the door and called police. The violent threats continued, he said.
“As a gay man, I felt pretty unsafe.”
‘LEGITIMATE CONCERNS’
Many nearby business owners and residents have filed complaints about the house.
Garbage and used needles are often scattered in the back alley. It’s not unusual to see human excrement.
Randy Pshebylo, executive director of the Riversdale Business Improvement District, said he would like the city administration and police to do more.
“It’s been a long-standing set of problematic behaviours at that address. People are making legitimate concerns and complaints about the way they and their customers are being treated.”
Neil Robertson, who has owned Garden Architecture, located one block east, for 14 years, said issues are constant.
In September, his security cameras recorded someone breaking into his business’s locked compound and stealing his Vespa scooter. It was later found in the back yard of the boarding house, damaged beyond repair, he said.
“I think we’ve become complacent as a city (about) accepting these behaviours and actions. Why does it take so long to address poor behaviour and neglected properties?” Robertson asked.
The Saskatoon fire department’s property maintenance division has received eight complaints since 2014 and has made 23 inspections at the boarding house.
The fire department visited on Dec. 12, and found 14 items that needed to be remedied relating to emergency lighting and the fire alarm system, among others. When the property was last inspected on March 8, 11 of those issues had been fixed.
Neizhen was making repairs at the home when a reporter visited.
“It’s clean. Everything is nice,” she said.
TENANTS
The Office of Residential Tenancies has no record of any complaints relating to the house. Janine Morningsky says she has a problem, but she didn’t report it to the office or the police because she she’s an addict and was scared to go to the police.
She said Neizhen gave her an eviction notice demanding that she vacate the property in just over two weeks. The StarPhoenix has obtained the eviction notice.
The day after she received the eviction notice, Morningsky said she was forcibly evicted and her room was searched without her permission.
“My room is a disaster now. They searched through everything.”
The eviction notice, dated Dec. 12, 2017 and signed by Neizhen, stated Morningsky must leave the home by Dec. 30. Legally, a landlord must give a tenant a 30-day eviction notice.
Neizhen denied the allegations when questioned by a reporter.
“It’s not true. I never kicked (anyone) out without a notice,” she said.
“I don’t know why people are always complaining. It’s not true.”
THE AUTHORITIES
Saskatoon police are well aware of the house. Spokeswoman Kelsie Fraser said the community liaison officer (CLO) for Riversdale has been in constant contact with business owners and residents. Last December, a community meeting was held.
“Our CLO constable had asked that they compile a list of activities they had noted and forward her a report so she could forward it on to the appropriate unit for investigation,” Fraser said.
“She has not received any of those details since that time. She’s sent follow-ups and tried to gather that information, but hasn’t received anything back.”
Adam Finn said residents’ complaints should have been collected for documentation at the December meeting. Compiling an additional list is too onerous, especially for people running businesses, he said.
“From my perspective, it seems redundant. We’re supposed to be watching this place and taking notes all the time? We went over all of that stuff in our meeting. The city has been called multiple times.”
Pshebylo said police have also been notified about suspected drug deals happening at the boarding house. He said the 2011 closure of the Little Chief police substation, which had maintained a stronger police presence in the area, was a big loss for the neighbourhood.
Fraser stressed the importance of reporting every incident to police.
“I’m not sure if every incident that’s there has been reported, because that drives our patrols. If we’re getting a huge number of calls to that area, it results in increased police presence and extra patrols going through there to try and curb any criminal activity.”
Documentation of any suspected drug activity should be sent to the CLO so it can be forwarded to the drug unit, Fraser said.
“Without that information it’s very hard for us to go there. We need to know where it’s happening, what time of day … and that way we can put extra patrols during that time. All of that information is very helpful (for) our operations.”
COOPERATION
Pshebylo said he would like to work with the city to ensure funding is available to deal with the issues more quickly.
“If this type of thing happened in Briarwood … I’d bet a month’s salary it would be dealt with quicker than what we are experiencing,” he said.
If there are needles outside the house, the drug use within has to be dealt with, he said.
The situation is discouraging for businesses in the area and makes them more likely to relocate to neighbourhoods where needles don’t litter the alleys, he added.
“The concern that the business district and the board has is that when we call, there’s a reasonable expectation that the problem we’re calling about would stop.”
CITY HALL
The City of Saskatoon’s water and waste department dispatches a team to pick up back alley litter if it’s reported through the city ’s customer service centre. The fire department handles needle disposal through its property maintenance division.
“If the waste involves anything that looks unusual, or starts to get into that health/safety hazard territory, once reported to us, we would then send an Environmental Protection Officer (EPO) to investigate,” city spokeswoman Julie Mintenko said.
“Depending on the time of day the complaint comes in, the EPO most often responds same day, or the next day. It would be very rare for the time frame to be any longer than that. The problem is, how long does the waste sit there before it’s reported to the city? We don’t know that answer.”
The EPO links waste back to a property and then gives the owner a warning and a time frame to remove the waste, she said.
“Weeks and months would never be acceptable. If it’s not taken care of, then the property owner would be charged.”
Pshebylo is skeptical of the claimed response time, saying it’s common to see a lot of garbage on moving day that’s never picked up.
“When we’re looking at four months and we’ve had four sets of tenants move out and the problem compounds, it’s even more frustrating,” he said.
The water and waste department received three separate complaints about garbage in the alley behind the boarding house last year. In those cases, the waste was cleaned up by individuals or taken care of by the property owner without a need for followup, according to city records. The last time an EPO was called to the address was Nov. 8.
TWO CITIES
Adam Finn said he enjoys operating his business in Riversdale, but is second-guessing that decision.
“It’s a mortgage that’s affordable for me to pay. I’m just trying to make a go of it.”
He noted the thriving arts and culture scene in Riversdale and in the downtown core, but said houses like the one at 316 Ave C S show a darker side of the city.
“It’s like a different world half a block away from here. It feels like a different part of the city,” he said.
For evicted and mistreated tenants who struggle with addictions and poverty, the options are bleak, Finn added.
“I just wish there was somewhere for people to be safe and start to get ahead. And this (house) is not it.”