City program reduces vacant buildings, councillor wants quicker results

There are fewer vacant buildings being left to rot in neighbourhoods across the city thanks to a pilot project designed to tackle the issue, but one councillor is looking for ways to get quicker results.

Windsor's vacant building registry is now up for review by council to measure its success over the last several months.

"My instincts are I think we can do a bit more, a bit faster and if we can, I'm going to push for that," said Ward 2 Coun. Fabio Costante, who plans to seek answers at Monday night's council meeting.

He says he's hearing concerns from residents who are forced to live near boarded-up homes, crumbling porches and weeds growing out of eavestroughs.

Costante also said "there's a lot of frustration" around the legal process and the time it takes to actually get results in vacant property cases.

And rightly so. His ward has 50 vacant buildings, the highest number out of all 10 wards in the city. By comparison, Ward 7 and Ward 8 only have one vacant building each, according to an inventory compiled by city administration.

"It's a huge concern in the west end," said Costante, who acknowledges that progress has been made to address vacant buildings.

Costante said his boundary is unique because of the many boarded-up homes caught in the middle of a controversy between the Ambassador Bridge owners and the City of Windsor. Demolition of these homes requires an exemption from council, but without a concrete plan for that land, politicians have been hesitant to approve that request.

On Monday, council will get an update on the pilot project over the last several months. Here are some of the accomplishments that took place between August, 2018 and February:

• 26 vacant buildings demolished
• 107 repair orders issued
• Six court charges filed
• 417 investigations conducted

And all of this came at a $148,000 cost to taxpayers, which was the revenue shortfall after hiring two bylaw officers and one clerk for the program. Costante also wants to explore the idea of somehow recovering those costs, as well as taking the burden off of taxpayers.

Now council must decide whether it wants to extend the vacant building initiative until July 2020, which is what administration is recommending.

And they must also vote on whether to create a vacant building registry, something they're being advised against carrying out.

Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin was initially in favour of a vacant building registry. But after seeing the results of this temporary initiative, he doesn't think it's necessary.

The city's program cannot force property owners to occupy vacant buildings, but Bortolin said the goal is to ensure these properties stay "viable."

"Ideally, you want continue this and you want to continue to do it in a way where the people [who own] those vacant building see that they're worth investing in," said Bortolin, especially since the market has drastically improved.

Ultimately, the initiative aims to ensure vacant buildings comply with property standards and don't become abandoned to the point of no return.

For their part, Windsorites living near vacant buildings in the city say they have numerous concerns about the safety of their neighbourhood as a result of the empty properties. 

"It has been a nightmare," said Waseem Alhamaideh, who lives behind an abandoned property on Caron Avenue. "One house that is vacant just causes so many problems and headaches."

Alhamaideh said the vacant property near his home was the site of a fire two years ago. He said fines need to be stiffer to ideally motivate landlords to take action sooner.

"We have to live with wild animals. Raccoons live in there," he added.

April Kennedy also lives near the vacant property on Caron Avenue. She said the property has been vacant for almost 11 years.

"We've had rats beyond belief, we've got raccoons, the homeless have taken up shelter here, we're putting up with grocery carts for their clothes and whatnot," she said. "You hear noises in the house all night long, so you're up and down all night long."

City council will discuss the program's future Monday night.