City takes step back in landlord licensing program

On Monday afternoon city council pumped the breaks on possibilities of landlord licensing in the city, for now.

This comes after over two years’ worth of concerns for properties with repeated calls for emergency services when there isn’t an emergency taking place.

The City will be looking into the item in the future, with administration looking into financial implications of implementing more staff to address city property maintenance problems. They’re hoping to be more pro-active with rental properties.

Ward 2 Coun. Hilary Gough said they hope to work toward a solution with the Saskatoon Fire Department and Saskatoon Police Service. She said landlord licensing may not be the “tool” the city needs at this time.

“It is a broad tool that is pretty complicated, and would be fairly costly, and administratively intensive,” she said.

Gough said a focused approach would work better for the city, with administration looking into new strategies to tackle the issue.

“If we’re not going to explore licensing, then we still want to consider how we can address the root cause of the problems that we’re discussing here.”

The City also released a report detailing the high amount of calls across Saskatoon for residential locations. Issues at one apartment building resulted in 411 calls for service in 2018. That averages out to nearly eight calls per week.

At least 25 other residences in 2018 averaged over a call per week to emergency services.

The licensing program also became an issue with residents, some worried that regulations would deter them from speaking out about issues at their residence to their landlords, in fear of being evicted.

These concerns were also linked to homelessness, and that some people would end up on the street following the institution of landlord licensing.

David Fineday, a resident of Saskatoon who was homeless in his past, spoke at Monday’s council meeting on the issue.

“Housing is a human rights thing, you have to realize that. Everybody deserves a roof over their head,” he said. “As soon as I got a house, a roof over my head, it straightened me right out.”

Shane Partridge of the Pleasant Hill Community Association sent his concerns to city council on the file. He noted that as of Jan. 12, 66 boarded-up residences existed in the community.

That’s an increase of the June 2019 numbers provided by Partridge; at the time there were 52 boarded up properties in the same area.

“This is a significant increase to be noted, over last 7 months. Since the City of Saskatoon conducted their Landlord Licencing Program research and report, this issue has become worse,” he said in an email.

Council voted unanimously in favour of seeking more information by city administration, 10-0. Coun. Bev Dubois was absent during Monday’s meeting.