Neighbours raise concerns about drug use, crime on Kamloops street

Colin Graham moved to Yew Street, in the heart of Kamloops B.C.'s North Shore, in June of this year. Since then, he and his family have seen a myriad of crimes ranging from theft and vandalism to intravenous drug use.

"It worries me in regards to my family and my belongings and everything I've worked for, you know?" said Graham.

Yew Street is home to a boarded-up house that's been condemned by the city, and an apartment building where Graham believes a significant amount of drug activity is happening.

"When you see somebody come by six times a day, in and out ... it's pretty obvious," he said. 

His neighbour, Mark Daly, has also witnessed suspicious activity, particularly near the apartment building. 

"It's a mess down there," he said. "The landlord [doesn't do anything] about it. It's just pathetic."

Police, the fire department and bylaw services have all been called to both the house, at 121 Yew Street, and the apartment building, Colonial Manor, several times. 

"Police are aware of this property and attend regularly to calls for service from the public," Cpl. Jodi Shelkie said in an emailed statement. "Calls for service include disturbance complaints, property crime, drug trafficking and violence."

Graham, who has called the police himself many times, worries there's nothing that can be done. 

"Their hands seem to be tied," he said. "After six, eight, 10 times a week of visiting you know it becomes less and less important.

Nuisance property

Graham said he'd like the City to create new laws or rules so that the property owner, particularly at Colonial Manor, would be penalized for allowing criminal activity to take place in their building. 

But those kinds of bylaws already exist in Kamloops; the Good Neighbour bylaw enables the City to label properties as "nuisance residences" if it receives one or more complaints concerning litter, noise or other issues about a particular residence over a 24-hour period, or more than three times over the course of a year.

If deemed a nuisance, the property owner is on the hook for costs related to all future nuisance calls. 

The house at 121 Yew Street has already been deemed a nuisance property. Acting bylaw services manager Tammy Blundell says the apartment building, Colonial Manor, may too be labelled a nuisance property if things don't change. 

"We've been dealing with nuisance issues as well as social and criminal activity," she said. 

"It is in the best interest of the property owner to comply and ensure that we see improvements at that property."

Property manager taking action

Colonial Manor manager Curtis Freisen is confident things will improve in the building, and has been working to get problem tenants evicted. The owner lives in the Lower Mainland.

"It's almost infectious in the sense that once you get bad ones, it makes good ones not as good they stop not caring," said Freisen.

Freisen said of the 18 units, only three of the original tenants remain since he took over management of the building last summer.

He's also removed the trees at the front of the property that drug users and dealers used to stay out of sight. 

The parkade was also a popular spot for criminal activity, so it's been painted, graffiti removed and they're stenciling 'no trespassing' on to the property. 

"We are cleaning up the building through different methods," Friesen said.