Editor's note: A previous posting of this story included a picture of the Grand Union Hotel. We have since reposted the story without that photo to alleviate any confusion that may have arisen among readers. cZ
ATHABASCA – An abandoned house on 50 St., often frequented by local homeless people needs to be torn down, a resident told town council last week.
Rod Kerr was before Athabasca town council June 2 to express his concerns over homeless people using a neglected house near his own home as a place to live. He requested council consider raising taxes on that property, or intervening and demolishing it altogether.
"One of the things that was mentioned to me and I've noticed myself is that abandoned buildings (and) homes are attracting undesirable activities from homeless people and drug addicts,” Kerr explained. “People are using them. They don't have sanitary services.”
Kerr, who is also president of the local Citizens on Patrol chapter, added he has been "trying for years” to find a remedy for the situation by talking to council, bylaw officers, health inspectors and the RCMP, all of whom he says are unable to help.
"What I'm saying is that we need to be looking at increased taxation or penalties for abandoned buildings and houses in Athabasca because they need to be dealt with. And just so you know, the health inspector doesn't want to do anything,” Kerr said. “So, I think that we need to take the bull by the horns and get after these people that own them and put some penalties on them if they're not going to board them up properly or bulldoze them or are just going them leave them.”
Athabasca RCMP Detachment commander Staff Sgt. Paul Gilligan, also in attendance at the meeting to give a crime stats report, was asked his thoughts and he agreed with Kerr.
“I do support the fact that some of these abandoned homes are causing us grief. Particularly one, of course, in your neighborhood Rod, but I think it would be helpful if the town could encourage some kind of either demolition or development of these properties,” Gilligan said.
Mayor Colleen Powell explained that it’s not that simple to just increase taxes on one property, something the town discussed a few years ago regarding another vacant property.
“We have to charge taxes as the assessor values the property at. We dealt with this – if you remember the old Texaco building that was empty for so many years – where Sal's and Petro Can now is, we looked at that then, and there's no way we could increase taxes,” she said.
Powell added the town has one property scheduled for demolition, but the process to get there is a long one, two to three years after taxes stop being paid, and requires going to court, CAO Rachel Ramey confirmed.
"It's very difficult and time-consuming to go through the process of going through the courts to have the ability to demolish them,” Ramey said.
Powell informed Kerr that the town has looked at every resource and even suggested residents contact Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN), a unit of Alberta Sheriffs who help keep communities safe by dealing with problem properties that are being used for specific illegal activities like drug trafficking, prostitution, child exploitation and gang-related crime.
“So, anything that you guys have for ideas would certainly help us because we have been looking at this, we have not been remiss finding tools that we can use,” Powell said. "We did tell people about SCAN earlier on and apparently they did come to town, but they only deal with private individuals.”
“They don't deal with us so I have no idea what happened with that and SCAN's problem is that they are under-resourced and undermanned like just about everywhere else, and they're covering the entire province. So, we were lucky to get them to come once.”
With no homeless shelters in the area and limited access to resources like the food bank out of town and the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre during the pandemic there’s little help for the homeless in the immediate area.
For several months the Union Hotel has been home to several homeless people and Kerr thinks it should be condemned too.
"You know, the Union is deplorable inside of there, what I've been told, but somehow it doesn't get condemned either,” he said.
Lois Uchityl with the Good Samaritan Mission Association Food Bank knows there is a problem and it’s one the food bank faced 20 years ago.
“People really don’t want people in a homeless shelter next to them,” she said.
Uchytil added some vocal community members didn’t want the food bank in town when it was formed either, forcing it to be in the county.
“We did at one time go to the Ministry Association and said, ‘Hey, there really needs to be a homeless shelter’ and they said, ‘Yeah, why don't you do it?’” Uchytil said. “You know, we can't do any more. We're flat out here. We just can’t undertake any more.”
Laureen Houle, the executive director with the Friendship Centre, said contact has been kept with some of the homeless during the pandemic to ensure they are getting what they need.
“We keep in touch since the whole pandemic,” Houle said. “We've gone around in the evenings and found them and they know they can come here if they ever need anything.”
Ramey said she will contact the health inspector again to see if that will have them take a look at the house in question.
"I don't know what we can do other than I can try to follow up and see if there's somebody above the health inspector that I can speak to and see if I can get an answer," she said.
Council also requested that the health inspectors be invited to a meeting so the council could understand exactly what their procedures are.
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @HLSox
