Problems with vacant homes ignored

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This article was published 11/01/2025 (271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who lives next door to a row of burned-out homes in Elmwood that have become popular with squatters says his concerns have been ignored by the city for months.

Jonathan Hildebrand has called, emailed and written his city councillor, the mayor and his MLA but says nothing has been done to address the charred properties plaguing his Glenelm neighbourhood.

A home next to his on Cobourg Avenue was hit by fire in August 2024. It spread to the two neighbouring houses, leaving the row of three prime fodder for break-ins and theft.

Hildebrand accuses the city of not following its own rules.

“The vacant building bylaw clearly outlines the requirements,” he said Friday. “It’s not like I’m coming up with a new law. It already exists. It’s just not being followed.”

After the fires, Hildebrand installed security cameras outside his house for his own peace of mind. A fence, put up after the fire, isn’t secured with a lock and people rip off boards from the doors and windows and come and go as they please, he said.

“Contractors are working on resolving the issue, right? It takes time, I get that. All I’m asking for is that the city makes it safe in the interim.”

Under the city’s vacant building bylaw, the building’s owner must secure the property once it is deemed vacant, but a bylaw officer can order enhanced security if deemed a “problematic” property.

Any vacant property that has had boards removed or damaged and been breached at least twice is considered problematic.

Officers can order a fence, security cameras or motion-activated floodlights be installed, or foot patrols to monitor the property to reduce the threat of break-ins or fires.

City spokesperson Adam Campbell said none of the three Cobourg properties have been declared problematic.

Hildebrand dialed 311 each time he saw someone breaking in but the complaints fell on deaf ears.

“I’m giving the city the benefit of the doubt here and assuming that they followed up appropriately and that they’re trying to work together with the homeowner,” he said. “What’s to stop the city from stepping in and saying, ‘We’re going to put a lock on the fence and we’re going to charge you for that lock?’

“I don’t see how that’s a complex issue.”

Since the August fire, the properties have been subject to a combined eight requests for service. One request remains open and under investigation, Campbell said.

Coun. Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) plans to raise the issue at Monday’s property committee meeting.

In May, the committee requested the public service report on a process to allow the city to perform demolitions and site cleaning when the owner of a vacant building has been advised the property is in an unsafe condition. A report on that request is expected at the committee’s Jan. 13 meeting.

“These issues, they don’t go away quickly. We have a city and bureaucracy to contend with, but people deserve an accounting and an understanding as to why it’s been left like this for so long,” Schreyer, who sits on the committee, said.

Vacant buildings continue to burn with increasing frequency.

A house in the North End went up in flames Friday morning for the second time since May 2024.

A few days earlier, the vacant Holy Ascension Greek Orthodox Church on Euclid Avenue burned. It was the parish’s third fire since November 2023. Church secretary Stephanie Sarlakis told the Free Press the church has been plagued by repeated break-ins, thefts and fires since the initial blaze. The building, constructed in 1938, is set to be demolished.

Last week, a vacant and burned out three-storey apartment block on the 300 block of Mountain Avenue was ordered demolished after it was hit by fire for a third time since August 2023.

Data provided in December showed the city battled 182 fires on vacant properties between January and September 2024, eclipsing 2023’s rate of 156 fires. At the time, deputy fire chief Scott Wilkinson said the city was on track to exceed 200 vacant building fires for the year.

Updated statistics were not available Friday.

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Schreyer said he isn’t opposed to demolishing the properties in his ward and building anew, but acknowledges homeowners must first have the opportunity to remediate the homes.

The councillor plans to hold a meeting at the Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation on Jan. 27 for residents to bring their concerns forward.

Last month, the city began work on a pilot project to inspect unsafe conditions at properties sooner, in the hopes vacant buildings are dealt with before they are set ablaze.

At the time, city officials were monitoring 684 properties under Winnipeg’s vacant buildings bylaw, including 526 residential and 158 commercial spots.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.