Tracey Resnick says as a hardworking taxpayer, she shouldn’t have to put up with what’s going on next door.
For 20 years, she’s lived in the 200-block of 24th Street West. For the last three, Resnick said she’s had to live next to an abandoned house that’s an eyesore being used as a possible drug den.
“This is a good neighbourhood, this was a good house but nobody is here and I don’t know who’s taking care of it,” Resnick said.
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It’s also making for sleepless nights.
Resnick said she is kept up fearing that there could be a fire, particularly in the winter months, as squatters try to stay warm.
“My neighbour said she was out one morning – she saw people climbing out of the window.”
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She’s called the police when she’s witnessed unlawful entry into a home she said has just been left to rot.
An inspection was also launched by the fire department after it received a report about the home last week.
Officials told Global News it’s one of a dozen in the city at any given time, a process that is strictly complaint-driven at this point.
“If we find that a house is not being lived in but is open to the public – we would seek to have it closed up so it prohibited that unwanted entry,” Wayne Rodger, with the Saskatoon Fire Department, said.
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On Friday, that’s exactly what the owner was ordered to do and fire officials said the scene would be secured by Wednesday.
“The windows haven’t been boarded up as you can see,” Resnick said.
If fire officials receive a follow-up complaint that a scene has not been secured, Rodger said crews are sent out to do the work themselves and that cost is then slapped onto the homeowner’s property taxes.
“The worst-case scenario is we would tear it down,” Rodger said.
“We would have to issue a number of orders to remedy to accomplish that and there’s a fair amount of legal requirements on our part to do something that drastic but that is certainly something within our tool belt to effect that change.”
Best case scenario, the owner steps up to take care of the property otherwise a decision to demolish it could take years.
“I don’t want to put up with it anymore!” Resnick said.
She said she will continue to file complaints if things don’t improve and prays no one gets hurt in the meantime – especially neighbourhood children.
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