Winnipeg launches team to speed up responses to derelict buildings

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Peggy

The City of Winnipeg has launched a new team to speed up responses to vacant and derelict buildings.

Consisting of by-law enforcement officers and building inspectors, the team is tasked with responding to complaints about buildings in unsafe conditions.

Normally, when the city received a complaint, it took the inspections branch 20 business days to make it out to a property. Now, a report to the property and development committee says the team can respond to buildings damaged by fires or in deteriorating condition within two days.

“There is a marked increase in unsafe and derelict properties across the City of Winnipeg,” Alana Crocker, manager of development and inspections, wrote in the report.

There are currently 684 properties enforced under the city’s vacant buildings bylaw. The William Whyte neighbourhood has 80 properties registered under the bylaw, by far the most of any Winnipeg neighbourhood.

Darrell Warren from the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association says vacant properties pose a fire risk, either from arson or break-ins. Warren has tracked fires in the area for years, and recorded four over the past weekend.

A house on Burrows Avenue that recently sold burned on Sunday, the same day as a garage at the corner of Salter Street and Magus, and another garage behind a house on Aberdeen Street. The day before, a house on Powers Street burned for the third time in recent months.

Warren says the fires have taken a toll on the community.

“A lot of people, I think, are looking at vacating the area because they want to go to safer places,” he said in an interview.

Chief of enforcement and investigations with the property, planning and development department Kelly Happychuk says the team will reach out to the owners of the properties in the William Whyte neighbourhood.

The team already has their work cut out for them.

“We started this program three weeks ago and we have 75 files that are open right now. So, it’s busy,” he said in an interview.

The city has tried to toughen enforcement on vacant and derelict buildings, introducing stricter requirements for securing doors and windows and levelling new fines.

But property and development committee chair Coun. Sherri Rollins says the number of vacant and derelict properties is still too high.

“We have over 700, not all the same buildings, but unfortunately we still have a bit of a churn that indicates that we’re not reducing the numbers.”

Warren hopes to see fewer fires, and more opportunities for affordable housing, noting the “sold” sign outside the property on Burrows Avenue.

“This house probably could have been refurbished and turned into a family home. And now it might be questionable what can happen here now.’

There’s no set end date for the team. A report on their progress is expected in April.