P.A. city council wants to do something about the volume of boarded up houses in the city. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Boarded up home solutions sought

Boarded up homes and bad tenant lists part of P.A. council talks

Dec 14, 2023 | 5:02 PM

What to do about boarded up homes and the reasons behind them was part of Prince Albert city council discussions recently.

The issue was first brought up by Coun. Tony Head, who said the city has incentives for other types of building and owners of boarded up buildings could use some incentive to do improvements as well.

“I get calls from residents saying I live next to this boarded up property, there’s no plan from the property owner to make changes, to make fixes, they’re not tearing it down, so it sits there as an eyesore with boarded up windows, eaves falling off,” he said.

He did not have a solution in mind, other than trying to get ideas elsewhere, one of which Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick provided.

Ogrodnick said that owners have little incentive to repair properties if the result is an increase in property taxes and suggested that a temporary freeze in increases (such as five years) might help – if it can be done under Saskatchewan law.

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Coun. Blake Edwards said that council also needs to think about why the houses are not being repaired in the first place.

“There’s reasons behind the boarded up houses and a lot of times it’s because they’ve been destroyed inside and need massive repairs,” he said.

“Often these landlords are faced with difficult decisions to evict or deal with the houses that continue to get destroyed.

“Once you evict people, they move on to the next house and often destroy that next one and then we add more boarded up houses. And that’s an issue.”

Edwards then said that a list that included chronically bad tenants that destroy homes would help landlords.

“Maybe that’s something that we could include as an opportunity to have the landlords share a list with each other, or with the city and we have a list of these individuals that continue to destroy house after house,” he said.

Head’s sentiments were echoed by Charlene Miller, councillor for Ward 1 which includes the West Flat.

She said that she also gets calls from residents who are worried about boarded up homes and counted 40 of them in her ward.

For her, the faster there is a solution, the better.

Staff have been asked to prepare a report on alternatives to address the problem, but it will likely take some time to complete.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com