In praise of the good inner city landlords

Much has been said about slum landlords who prey on the poor and helpless in the inner city. Little is said about the majority of inner city landlords, who provide an honest, safe place to live.

Most inner city landlords are small operators with a few houses or apartments. As volunteers developed an anti-crime strategy in North Point Douglas, it was found it took a long time for the police or the provincial Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act personnel to deal with a crack house or a party house. Both are scourges of a healthy inner city.

Crack houses are the places where addicts and recreational users buy their hits of crack. Party houses are places guys rent and have ongoing, continuous parties.

Both destroy the harmony and safety of a street. A crack house has people coming on foot, in cars and in taxis at all hours. The youth in the area are attracted to the place where they can score a few hits of crack on credit and make some quick money selling to users on the street.

The party house is actually worse for a street. A semi-respectable person rents a house from an unsuspecting landlord. They move in and it's a party every night -- 24s of beer. Soon there are kids, drawn by a party and free booze -- kids as young as 13. Neighbours call the police. The police arrive and everyone quiets down.

The police leave, the party starts up again. Drunks pile into vehicles all night and screeching tires peel away. Police are unable to act. What is a community to do?

We discovered most landlords aren't happy if their property is a crack house or a party house.

A neighbour called the Point Douglas "powerline" about a party house. We called the landlord. She was horrified. She came in from Beausejour and discovered the house was a shambles. Five days later, the party house people left, evicted.

Soon we had closed or the landlord had evicted five party house folk and three crack dealers, by concerned neighbours, a community organization and a concerned landlord working together.

Five streets were safer. It happened fast.

Andrew Swan, the minister of justice, asks people to report these type of houses to the community safety branch. He doesn't tell people they have a waiting list of more than 125 crack and party houses and it could take months to get action.

Most small landlords don't want criminals living in their houses or apartments. When alerted, most respond to protect their own property.

We still have bad landlords, often sharing in the profits made from selling crack.

New dealers and party houses pop up in North Point Douglas from time to time. With help from good landlords, the community kicks them out quickly. If not, we can count on the police or the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act; they just take a little longer and have lots of other important things to do.

If we are to deal with crime, we need to think of alternative tactics; this is just one. Thanks, landlords.

Sel Burrows is an activist in Point Douglas.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 16, 2012 A11