Vacant. Board or have all the windows smashed out and the possibility of squatters.

Last time I saw a house being boarded up, it was because it was considered 'unfit for human habitation' by SaskHealth.

well probably because people dont know how to take care of themselves and their belongings forcing the government to board up their homes. Crappy landlords and bad tenants made a lethal combination for a house.

to peg, if a house is unfit for human hab. why are they being boarded up instead of being torned down, take a drive down 18th.west from 9 ave to 19th ave and count how many there are

When a tenant destroys a house and they are gone you have to board the place up because of broken windows or you will have broken windows and if not you will have squatters living in them.Some of P.A.s finest do not have a home and just go from place to place and live.99% of the time it is not the landlords fault that they have to bourd the houses up.A lot of houses are being fixed up while being boarded up.If they are not boarded up there are people out there that do not apreciate the homes they get to live in for free.If they had to work for a living and pay for the damages they do it would be much different.Time the government put all these people to work and don't say there is no work for them.All you have to do is try and drive down the city streets and see how many holes there are or how much garbage is laying around our city.Do not blame someone that is not responsible for the mess this city is in.Time for a new mayor 3 years ago.

The city should have their polcies or bylaws changed in regards to nuisance or uninhabitable structures that allow owners 60 days to make the changes needed to re-open these dwellings. If not done they should be removed by the owner prior to the 60 days or the city will remove at total cost to the owner. If the property does not have the value and the owner does not want to pay then the city should offer these locations to an organization such as Habitat for Humanity at the cost of the removal to help rebuild our areas of the city that are now in decay.

Oh @taxpayer you should call the bylaw!! and remind them of the bylaws they should be inforcing. see what they say to you.
@ new mayor you sound like the same mayor we have. What will you do that is not the same? that's the question.

Tax payer you just don't get it.The landlord is not the one to blame.Lets say you get a job in another country and you have to rent out your house to pay the mortgage while you work out.You rent the house out at a fair price you are set and go to work leaving someone to pick up the rent money.Everything is good.You find out 3 months down the road that your tenant has destroyed your house and has left it open for someone to come in and live there for free.Your friend kicks out thepeople living in it he then boards up your house.You just lost that months rent and now you have to find someone to fix the house up again.They remove the boards because you do not want the place to look like an eye sore.The guys have it all fixed up and now some one breaks a window.They fix the window.No big deal right you do not want it looking like an eye sore.Now it is ready to rent out again.Now you have lost 2 months rent and all the fixing.You want it rented as soon as possible.Your friend finds someone to rent.4 months pass all is good.This tenant gives you notice to leave but has a going away party and a few windows get broken and needs new rugs again.Up come the boards till you can find someone to fix the windows.PA is so busy you don't just call the glass shop and they are there you wait 3 weeks all the time the boards are up.Please have the city knock this house down because it is nothing but an eye sore with the boards up on the windows.Give it to Habitat for Humanity to take down for the cost of the removal to help build up our areas in city.Do you need me to explain it again to you or do you get the picture now.I dought it.People like are why this town is what it is now.Going no where fast.If it was not for these lower income houses throughout the city you would be living next some of these people that do this to these homes.Everybody only sees the after pictures.If you would see the before pictures you may have a different veiw.Still need a new mayor.

on

Others:We did not need a soccer center.Our infastructure is falling apart our roads.When you spend 4 million dollars on a soccer center and forget all the important things that make this city work there is something wrong here.Hope you like paying extra on your taxes for the soccer center.Now they want to spend another $80,000.00 on sprinklers but can not replace a water main on 15th.st.west.Do I have to go

New Mayor, you are right as far as the damages done to some of the homes by tenants. But when you have homes in this area (and some others) you are well aware of the clientele that will be living in your dwelling. But you may be naive in the fact that there are quite a number of slum landlords out there, that rent out houses and the condition at the start of the tenants move-in are in quite deplorable condition. If a house is waiting a reno and has the windows boarded up, I am sure that the landlords can replace the windows and have it back on the market in a short time. Hats off to the landlords that are trying to make a difference by supplying decent housing that taxpayers are paying for, through social services.

@ Taxpayer. That was a fairly odd comment. Are you insinuating that all renters are on Social Assistance?

PA guy, no I am not insinuating anything. Take it how you want. Unless you are wearing blinders, you will know that there are a lot of social assistance in some very distinct areas. This is a socioeconomic trend that some landlords take advantage of, as I was saying previously about slum landlords. This is not meant to say that all renters on social assistance will deliberately damage their rental property. Most likely the majority will look after their home. The ones that we see that are left in deplorable condition is likely a small percentage of those on assistance. There are many that are not on social assistance that are renters and likely a percentage of them also will also be derelict in looking after their homes as well.

It certainly isn't always renters on assistance. I have a rental house and the renters I had, both had jobs - but also some bad habits. They were consistently late with rent and after I threatened to contact rentalsman, they contacted the bylaw police. After they had done some damage to the house (ie; removed plug-in and light covers, knocked off the drain pipe, broke the window locks, etc. Bylaw police came and gave me a notice to have everything fixed in 60 days. The renters wouldn't allow me into the house to fix the damage and indicated that I couldn't kick them out when there were repair issues (this is why they called by-law - they believed it would prevent them from being kicked out and intended on living rent free). Eventually I got them out and then had several months of repairs to do - they had cats that they allowed to use the house as a litter box. I'm frustrated with the by-law police - I travel through p.a. and see some houses in terrible condition. It appears the by-law police are just reactive not proactive and only respond if someone calls.