Winnipeg’s mayor says the city has started the process of seizing dozens of vacant and derelict properties since council moved last year to speed up enforcement.<\/p>\n
The update comes after firefighters battled six fires at five vacant buildings within a few hours early Tuesday. Another vacant structure, the former Vulcan Iron Works site, caught fire late Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The city has the power to seize properties from owners who violate the vacant buildings bylaw, but it was rarely used for years.<\/p>\n
Council passed a motion ordering city staff to use that power of taking title without compensation more frequently last December. The decision was made amid growing frustration about the issue of repeated fires in vacant buildings.<\/p>\n
The city has since started the process of seizing 48 properties, Mayor Scott Gillingham told CBC News on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“Each one of those vacant and derelict residential properties represents the opportunity for more housing at a time when we need more housing,” he said.<\/p>\n
A city spokesperson says the process requires a property owner to first be convicted in provincial court for violating the vacant buildings bylaw.\u00a0If a conviction is secured, the owner has at least 90 days to fix their properties before the city can take title.<\/p>\n
The 48 properties have had charges laid against them, but Gillingham said the owners will have time to bring their buildings into compliance.<\/p>\n
“The property owners have the opportunity to get into full compliance with city bylaws and city regulations. So, it may not be that the city ultimately takes title of all 48 properties,” he said.<\/p>\n
Darrell Warren has seen one vacant house fire after another.<\/p>\n
The president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association says three houses on Powers Street have had a total of 12 fires in four years. One was among the properties firefighters were sent to early Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“These are good-sized lots here,” Warren said. “You could build a five- or six-plex here on this particular property. And you know, you could have five to six families [with] a responsible landlord.”<\/p>\n
Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Deputy Chief Scott Wilkinson says repeated vacant house fires are pushing firefighters and investigators to the brink.<\/p>\n
“It was a huge strain on our system and on our people,” he said during a news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Warren says neighbours feel the strain, too.<\/p>\n
“It’s very hard to say to them, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s hope’ … when stuff like this stands around for years and years.”<\/p>\n
He says people in the area are tired of waiting while dangerous buildings sit empty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg’s mayor says the city has started the process of seizing dozens of vacant and derelict properties since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[19468,5537,19470,4648,19469,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-44169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg","8":"tag-derelict-properties","9":"tag-properties","10":"tag-residential-properties","11":"tag-scott-gillingham","12":"tag-vacant-buildings","13":"tag-winnipeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}