62 replies to this topic

[charity]

My condo building is very small, only 23 units, all bachelor/studio types. It's a nice mix of young professionals in live/work situations, university students, medical offices and retired singles.

Unfortunately, we have a major break and enter problem. Upwards of 30 times a day, people were entering our building via the front door, just by yanking hard on it. This was able to happen because the door was damaged, first by homeless people who had been picking the lock to gain enterance into our building to set up camp, and then further damaged by a very social renter and his friends after learning that the door could be easily opened with only a strong yank on the handle.

A few days ago, we finally fixed the front door by reinforcing it with a piece of angle iron, so the aluminium frame can no longer flex and skip over the locking mechanism. We thought that the problem of transients and other unauthorized people entering our property had been solved.

Not so.

Only 12 hours after having the front door fixed, someone cut through the chain link fence in the parkade to gain entry into the lot.

Were they there to break into cars? Steal bicycles? No, these were all ignored. Neither did they set up camp, or seek entry into the main building.

They were there for cans. They cut through chain link fence to steal $20 worth of bloody recycling.

To me, this is much worse than the homeless who unlawfully seek entry to find shelter against the elements. Although I am not fond of the couple who live in the electrical room beneath my unit, or the group who live on the roof, or the couple who periodically baracade off the downstairs hallway with their tarps and whatnot, I can at least appreciate that they are seeking out a basic human need for shelter.

What I can't understand is the absolute disrespect that is shown by the people who would vandalize and destroy my building by cutting the chain link, just for a couple bucks. There is nothing we can do about this. It's not the first time it's happened and I'm sure it's not the last. We can't put the recycling somewhere else, and with out violating bylaw we can't put it anywhere where they can access it without breaking into our building.

I am completely at a loss. I cannot fathom how anyone could have the gall to do such a thing, but the homeless in this city are so brazen, so coddled, so catered to and so much more important than those of us who manage to purchase homes and pay our taxes that I can't see there being a solution to this problem.

I have lived all over Canada. Never have I had my vehicle broken into. Not when I lived in the "ghetto" in Halifax, not in Montreal, not in seedy Missisauga, but since moving to Victoria almost four years ago, I have been broken into 3 times, once while in a "secure" parkade. The level of crime, vandalism and, basic lack of respect for thy neighbour is abhorrent.

I had hoped that I had finally bought my last property, and that after 10 years of being moved here and there by the military, I had finally found a place to rest, but I find myself looking at MLS more and more.

I just can't fathom myself staying in a place where it is so expensive to recycle.

[Mike K.]

I have lived all over Canada. Never have I had my vehicle broken into. Not when I lived in the "ghetto" in Halifax, not in Montreal, not in seedy Missisauga, but since moving to Victoria almost four years ago, I have been broken into 3 times, once while in a "secure" parkade. The level of crime, vandalism and, basic lack of respect for thy neighbour is abhorrent.

 

 

Unfortunately this is a problem many of us face in this community. Petty crime like this is rampant. Just the other week while moving into a new office space a man had attempted to steal items from our office while we were moving in a piece of furniture. Blatant disregard for the law and police do not have the time/resources/willingness to do anything about it. We called the police and gave them a description of the individual but they never showed and who knows if they ever located him.

 

So the question is, how long before we start introducing the sorts of measures we see in various third world places around the world? And no, I'm not kidding. How many times must a property be broken into or vandalized before owners put up fencing or serious deterrents? If the level of petty crime and break ins continues we will begin to see more separation of private spaces in our communities.

[Sparky]

Welcome to the forum charity. You are safe here. (well sort of)

[aastra]

 

Blatant disregard for the law and police do not have the time/resources/willingness to do anything about it

 

When police are too busy to care about blatant disregard for the law I suppose you really do have a problem. Is the fire department too busy to care about fires?

[sebberry]

I don't think they're unwilling to do anything about it, just that the courts never seem to put the perps away for more than a few days... 

 

Plant some holly and poison ivy around the chain-link fence. 

Hire private security to patrol and keep the building free of transients.

[johnk]

A hungry bull mastiff could be an "organic" solution.

[Baro]

Yeah, sadly you just have to fortify your building.  Fortified buildings don't make for a nice street-scape though.  Also get those people out of your electrical room that's a huge insurance liability and fire safety issue.  You aren't supposed to store ANYTHING in an electrical room, let alone let people live in it.  If there was a fire or issue stemming from this act of charity your insurance company would not cover you.

[charity]

Yeah, sadly you just have to fortify your building. Fortified buildings don't make for a nice street-scape though. Also get those people out of your electrical room that's a huge insurance liability and fire safety issue. You aren't supposed to store ANYTHING in an electrical room, let alone let people live in it. If there was a fire or issue stemming from this act of charity your insurance company would not cover you.

I think you missed a bit of the sarcasm in my post. There isn't an actual couple 'living' in the electrical room. Please also let me state that we are not looking at this situation from a charitable standpoint. These individuals are not welcome, and in no way have we extended any invites to these vagrants into our building, nor do we just accept their extremely unwanted presence.

Their presence in our building is seen by myself and the other owners and residents as a complete violation of the rights we deserve as homeowners, and the owners of this property. Our privacy, safety, security, and peace of mind are constantly in question. This is completely unacceptable, and we have no intention of relaxing our high level of vigilance concerning this issue. We are fighting tooth and nail to keep these people out, and alert the police to their presence the instant any of us find an unauthorized individual trespassing on our property.

The electrical room issue, although ongoing, is an intermittent problem. To my knowledge, four people have been arrested, on three occasions, who were discovered in the electrical room by police.

The two most extreme cases of actual long-term 'habitation' on our property came in the form of a small group of two or three tents which had been pitched on our rooftop patio, and a couple who were camping at the end of the corridor which comprises the very rarely utilized secondary street-level exit, at the front of our building.

This particular couple were fully equipped with sleeping bags, a small table, Coleman stove, and even had a clothesline installed.

Their bicycle, complete with the standard hand-crafted trailer full of junk, was parked in the railed area just outside the exit door. To safeguard their privacy, they had ripped-up pieces of looseleaf writing paper, which they had taped together, to cover the small window in the door guarding against prying eyes.
While it remains unclear exactly how long they had been there, it was most likely three to four days.

On the Sunday afternoon, a resident alerted the strata board members, who had the couple removed and arrested. The resident had stumbled upon their makeshift hallway campsite, while utilizing the rarely used corridor. To their credit, they were extremely mannerly, and cordial to their surprised, not to mention. unsuspecting, and unaware host, clearing a path in their disgusting filth, to facilitate access to the exit.

The horrendously poor, pig sty-like conditions of the corridor where they had been set up, along with the smell of human waste, (which they used to show their gratitude, by smearing on the walls) along with the pungent smell of stale body odour, definitely backed up the three to four day estimated squatting timeframe.

Does anyone else experience such blatant disregard for the basic rights of others, not to mention the simplest forms of common courtesy as these people have shown myself, and the remainder of the property owners with whom I share my building?

Or is this an isolated issue, which after three years, and numerous arrests simply refuses to go away?

[sebberry]

I'm having a hard time imagining a private, access controlled building occupied by 23 owners/legitimate tenants has been overrun by transients who are smearing their feces on the walls. 

 

Time to fortify and hire security.

[Nparker]

Alas, it's situations like this that draw sympathy away from the plight of the homeless. You have my sympathies "charity" and I hope the powers that be will come to realize that taxpaying citizens deserve a few tears at the Council table too.

[jklymak]

Our building, when it was just starting to be occupied, had similar issues.  We instituted better door security, and a daily hall patrol, and the problem basically went away.  There is the occasional bike stolen from the garage or car break in, but relatively minor stuff.  

 

Of course the hall patrol shouldn't do anything to forcibly remove people, but making sure you don't have any "rarely visited hallways" will be a big help in discouraging unwelcome guests.

[sebberry]

We've had a few cars broken into over the years.  Before I got here, one was stolen (and later recovered).

 

We had one resident awake to find someone in his hallway (they forgot to lock the suite door)

We had another resident awake to find someone in their kitchen pouring a glass of water

 

While we have the knob guards on the doors, they don't stop residents from letting in strangers.

I don't know how many times we have had to remind people to wait for the garage door to close before leaving the driveway - wonder how we end up with bottle collectors in the garage...

 

(And to think one resident raised a stink about Shaw/Telus having keys to the place...)

[Nparker]

....I don't know how many times we have had to remind people to wait for the garage door to close before leaving the driveway ...

OMG yes. Why is this so difficult for some people to understand?

[sebberry]

OMG yes. Why is this so difficult for some people to understand?

 

[LJ]

Or is this an isolated issue, which after three years, and numerous arrests simply refuses to go away?

 

 

 

 

You have lived there for 3 years? I would have been out after 3 weeks.

[aastra]

An acquaintance used to live in one of the Regent Park towers ~20 years ago and I remember he complained one time about some street folk occupying an interior hallway there. I didn't see it myself but I believe it was somewhere on the lower level (parkade/fitness room/storage units/etc.).

[Rob Randall]

I had to deal with this at my old building. I learned the tipoff was the stairwell was warm--someone had turned on the baseboard heater and it's never on, even in winter. Sure enough, someone was always camped under the interior stairwell. They know the drill; they know they have to leave immediately. One guy seemed annoyed I had interrupted his perusal of an explicit mens' magazine. His "roommate" had kicked him out. Until we put a locked gate across it, people always used to crawl into our gas-fired boiler exhaust to sleep.

Yeah, you all have to do regular patrols. Soon, word gets out that your building is more trouble than it's worth. Face it, if you were homeless, you'd rather sleep in a condo building than under a muddy bush in the park. But I don't understand why these people leave a mess. It just make their presence more obvious and unwelcome. If they left at 5 am without a trace they could probably stay indefinitely undetected.

[insanelydeadlydisease]

This is the price you pay for living downtown in a cat box. Personally I like to living in a house in the burbs away from all the scum. 

[Nparker]

Yes, cuz nothing bad ever happens in the burbs.

[charity]

I'm having a hard time imagining a private, access controlled building occupied by 23 owners/legitimate tenants has been overrun by transients who are smearing their feces on the walls. 
 
Time to fortify and hire security.

I find myself in the same place as you. Even though it's happening, and it's glaringly obvious, I still find it almost impossible to believe.

...however, as sure as I'm writing this, nothing I have posted is anything but the truth.