A known crime spot is once again on the Prince George RCMP's radar and city officials have been brought in to help clean up the problem property.
Prince George Fire Rescue are working up a list of safety-related deficiencies to present to the owners after RCMP noticed a lack of smoke detectors while making two drug-related arrests Wednesday night at the Homeland Inn, in the 1600 block of Victoria Street.
Police had been targeting the site for the past three weeks in the name of the Prince George RCMP's prolific property program and over that time 24 files have been generated for incidents at the Homeland, both calls for service and initiated by police themselves.
They include a domestic dispute where a person lost part of a finger, drunken fights, mischief to property and drug possession.
In the last five days, police executed two search warrants on units at the Homeland, one on Saturday night and then one that led to Wednesday's arrests and followup by Prince George Fire Rescue. Two people were arrested and quantities of drugs were seized on both occasions.
"These two search warrants are examples of how the prolific property program is working," Prince George RCMP Inspector Brad Anderson said. "Each warrant was investigated and executed by different sections of the detachment working with a common goal. We will continue to focus on specific properties that cause a great amount of harm in the community."
Formerly the Ranch Motel, the property was purchased in March 2011 by a Lower Mainland group and went through a refurbishment.
But a bit more than two years later, the situation appears to be back to square one.
The Homeland's more law-abiding residents had plenty of complaints to register during interviews with local media on Thursday afternoon.
Donna Cardinal, who has lived at the Homeland since January and has been the manager for part of that time, said there have been plenty of promises by the owners but little or no action on requests by tenants.
"I remember the gentleman that moved into room 11 needed a hot plate and he waited two months for it," she said. "He would cook his meals here [in my unit]."
She accused the owners of being nothing more than slumlords.
Tenants pay $575 per month for a tiny, one-bedroom unit with a small kitchenette and bathroom.
But most rely on welfare and disability benefits to make ends meet and are desperate for a roof over their heads.
Gary Stephen, 61, has been sleeping in an easy chair in a small unit rented out by Gordy Plummer, 54, who gets a bedroom large enough for a single bed. Together, they receive $1,900 per month in benefits and rely on the food banks soup lines to offset their living expenses.
Government-owned housing for low-income people is out of the question because they both own dogs. They moved into the Homeland after waking up to a layer of snow on top of them while camping out in the bush along Third Avenue.
"This was the only thing I could get at the time," Plummer said.
Like Cardinal, Plummer said the owners have failed to live up to their promises.
"He said you've got a new bathroom coming in, a new kitchen floor coming in and a new rug in," Plummer said. "Now, I've been here just about a year and there's not a thing that's been done."
City bylaw manager Guy Gusdal said there have been concerns with the site since early spring and said the owners have been "somewhat co-operative" in addressing the issues raised.
Philip Danyluk of Living Options Real Estate Services, which manages the property on behalf of the owners, said the situation will be turned around within the next few weeks.
"We had a manager in place there for about a year and he obviously made some bad decisions about letting certain people in there," Danyluk said, and later added the company must "go by the rules," when dealing with such people.
"It's not like we're doing it on purpose, let's put it that way," he said.
