Landlord blames Penticton city council for problem houses

PENTICTON – Matt Taylor has laid the blame for problem houses squarely at the feet of Penticton city council.

Taylor owns an apartment complex adjacent to 377 Winnipeg St., an address frequented by police and the subject of many complaints to the city over the past months as a suspected drug house.

He appeared before council in October 2017, requesting help from city council in dealing with bylaw issues stemming from the property next door and was before council again today, April 3.

In requesting additional bylaws and enforcement personnel to properly deal with all problem properties in Penticton, Taylor said the city had great staff, but didn’t have the tools to do the job, calling the issue "council’s problem."

While Taylor said he wasn’t speaking specifically about the house at 377 Winnipeg St., he did note the address recently had its electrical service cut, the tenants replacing the service with a generator that was operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in addition to noting the residence had many broken windows.

Taylor told council the city needed additional regulatory or legislative solutions after “repeated involvement of every form of law enforcement in the city” to the residence.

He suggested the city enact new bylaws, including a standard of maintenance, disconnected service and irresponsible landlord bylaw to deal with the issue, in addition to hiring more bylaw staff.

“I appreciate you did bring on one more individual, but from what I’ve seen, bylaw is a profit centre for the City of Penticton. It makes more money than it spends, and I don’t see why, if you have a recognized problem, you wouldn’t run it revenue neutral, or even spend money in that particular area,” he told council.

Taylor said he didn’t blame the issue entirely on the city, saying the community had to step up “and expect more.”

Chief administrative officer Peter Weeber told council things were being done with respect to issues at the home at 377 Winnipeg St., adding the city had existing rules for looking after the bylaw issues there.

“It takes time. The reality is we have to follow the process,” he said.

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