Image: M. Vanden Bosch / PML / A boarded up eyesore located in the 45700 block of Wellington Avenue. There was another home just like this in the same block of Wellington, just 2 blocks from downtown Chilliwack.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Abandoned homes

Chilliwack City Council frustrated with abandoned, derelict homes and the chaos they cause

Aug 4, 2022 | 12:47 PM

CHILLIWACK — Abandoned, vacant and boarded up homes are putting an unnecessary strain on city bylaw, police and fire personnel to the point that Chilliwack City Council called for action at its meeting Tuesday (Aug. 2).

A motion on Tuesday’s agenda up for discussion asked that “Council look at strategies to address issues related to vacant homes.”

As a matter of fact, the issue of boarded up homes remains so top of mind that a portion of the monthly Public Safety Advisory Committee is devoted to this singular issue of vacant houses.

“Every month when we meet, a portion of our agenda is always around vacant houses,” said Councillor Bud Mercer, who sits on the committee along with Councillor Jason Lum. “The discussion was about, are we doing the best we can for vacant houses? Are there ideas out there that would improve our position and improve our response, and lessen the load that vacant houses have historically and currently had an impact on our city, our bylaw, on fire departments, police departments, and on and on?”

Lum, a council member since 2011, advised that Chilliwack is within the provincial boundary for the vacant home tax, meaning the B.C. government collects money on homes left vacant or declared vacant. This, he said, adds to some of the challenges with the tight rental market.

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“Unfortunately, we have some challenges in Chilliwack with some members of the community, or some people who are not yet members of the community, that have speculated on purchasing houses in real estate here,” Lum said. “They would rather leave those houses empty and derelict than keep them rented. As Councillor Mercer said, this causes issues with a number of different things, [including] vandalism, fires, etc.”

Lum added that there’s been too much pressure exerted upon city bylaw officers and community members to basically enforce vacant, derelict properties that devolve into eyesores and blight.

Image: M. Vanden Bosch / PML / Chilliwack City Council decried these types of abandoned homes at its meeting Tuesday (Aug. 2) and called for action to reduce strain on city bylaw, police and fire resources.

“That’s not acceptable to people that want to come to the city of Chilliwack, or live here in the city of Chilliwack and are trying to develop,” Lum said. “It sends the wrong message.”

Councillor Chris Kloot indicated that when fires in vacant, abandoned homes occur, the City receives correspondence from Chilliwack fire investigators. He asked Chris Wilson, assistant fire chief and emergency program coordinator for the Chilliwack Fire Department, about how often these suspicious fires lead to criminal charges.

Wilson said it doesn’t happen that often.

“I do know it certainly takes a solid bit of evidence to get a conviction and quite often that’s hard to come by given the nature of the situations in these homes,” Wilson said. “It’s hard to come by.”

Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment Superintendent Davy Lee confirmed what Wilson said based on his own experience as an RCMP officer. In response to a question from Councillor Bud Mercer about how often charges result from these investigations, Supt. Lee said Crown prosecutors and the courts tend to pursue alternative means of justice.

“Off the top of my head, I’m not aware of too many of these that actually make it to the Crown approval stages,” Lee said. “Often they’re resolved or mitigated in speaking with the people involved. Courts have been reluctant to take on these types of cases unless the damage is so significant, like the whole house is burned down, but usually the ones we’ve seen typically result in some type of resolution in the courts.”

City of Chilliwack chief administrative officer Chris Crosman said city staff will evaluate best practices and work towards solutions, at which point recommendations will head back to the Public Safety Advisory Committee.

Councillor Lum clarified it wasn’t just boarded up houses that result in significant problems, but also properties where the home has been demolished but the rest of the property remains derelict.

“I can recall sitting in these council chambers listening to a very good pitch for how badly we need affordable housing and we needed to rezone these apartments, and get going really quick,” he said. “This council does their job, staff does their job, they pass a rezoning and this is just a slap in the face. They leave these properties derelict and vacant and then peace out to another province where they happily let the rest of our staff chase them around. Quite honestly we give them tiny little slaps on the wrist with these very small bylaw fines. The situation as it stands doesn’t work, it doesn’t work for anybody. It’s something that I think we need to take extremely seriously.”