Problem properties backlogged
Injury risk
The yard across the street from Mike Horosko’s North Park home is piled high with refuse — soiled mattresses, a couch, a rolled up carpet and a dog kennel are scattered on the overgrown lawn. A dog — one of about six that are visible — pokes his head through an open gate.
“They threw that out three days before the long weekend,” Horosko says,
“IF HER MOM KNEW ... SHE WOULD TURN OVER IN HER GRAVE.”
MIKE HOROSKO
pointing to the dishevelled stack of mattresses.
“Every week there is something. Their dogs urinate over everything and they don’t clean anything up.”
Horosko has been living in the same house for the past 26 years. He has watched — week in and week out — as the state of the house across the street deteriorated year after year.
“If her mom knew what she had done to that home, she would turn over in her grave,” Horosko says.
Currently, there are hundreds of homes like Horosko’s neighbour’s waiting to be dealt with. Horosko has made a complaint to the fire department, but to his knowledge nothing has been done.
Since the mid-1990s, the fire department has been in charge of the city’s property maintenance bylaw. As of last year, the fire marshal and inspectors have the power to hand out tickets to repeat offenders.
In total, the department’s waiting list for complaints about unsafe or problem properties is estimated to be upward of 600.
Horosko’s neighbour, like other homeowners who repeatedly refuse to cut overgrown grass and weeds or clean up junked vehicles or garbage on their properties, could face fines of $250. The ticket jumps to $500 for a second offence and $750 for a third offence.
Those who refuse to comply get a $500 ticket, climbing as high as $1,000 for a third or subsequent offence.
But even with the new enforcement powers, there is still a serious backlog of complaints. The average wait time for a complaint like Horosko’s is two or three weeks.
“It’s a never-ending story,” says Luc Durand, the fire department’s acting fire marshal.
Currently, there are only five dedicated staff members dealing with problem properties in Saskatoon. Not only do they deal with untidy properties — places with uncut grass and weeds or broken down vehicles or garbage on the lawn — they are also in charge of more serious kinds of enforcement, where lives are at risk.
“Something like an unsecured house, or an open excavation where someone can hurt themselves. Plac- es where the smoke alarms are not working. Those (kinds of properties) are the priority,” Durand says.
Durand says the new powers to hand out fines have helped curb the number of repeat offenders. But the increasing number of complaints has been compounded by the introduction of a hotline where neighbours lodge a complaint by phone.
Durand also says some files can drag on through months in the court process — especially when other agencies get involved.
“Every year the city is growing, we get more complaints. Every one of the complaints gets investigated. The only problem is we are struggling with the time frame,” Durand says.
This past weekend, the home across Horosko was tidied up. The mattresses, the couch and the kennel are gone from the yard. Horosko says he never saw the fire department there and believes it was the presence of StarPhoenix reporter outside that prompted the clean up. But he believes it’s only a matter of time before things start to pile up again. “It’ll happen again. It’s been happening for years,” he says. “Every week or two weeks there is couch or a carpet that has to come out. It is just an eyesore.”