City committee endorses strategy to deal with boarded-up homes in Saskatoon

The city of Saskatoon will start taking action on boarded-up homes if a plan by the fire department receives approval by city council.

The proposal going before council this month would see fire inspectors start investigating these properties and issue orders to have them fixed up.

The issue came up last summer after a string of murders in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood. Community leaders told council then the increasing number of vacant properties was creating more opportunities for criminal activity with residents already concerned about safety.

Currently, the majority of boarded-up properties in the city are done by the owners themselves for a variety of reasons with the city having very little oversight, said assistant fire chief Wayne Roger.

“We were made aware of about 56 properties in Pleasant Hill last summer. We knew that of that 56, we were responsible for the boarding up of five of them,” he said.

Roger said by tracking and examining these properties they will be able to determine why they were boarded up in the first place.

“We’ll get some indicators as to how long a building has been or should be in that boarded state before it’s repaired.”

“As these files evolve through, and at some point get closed, I’m anticipating that the stats will tell us that we’re going to start seeing a reduction in the numbers of boarded houses.”

City council will vote on the matter at its Jan. 27 meeting.