Pulled from the Welland Tribune News - By Maggie Riopelle

Niagara College students risk being put out on the streets if Welland’s fire chief finds them living in unsafe, illegal housing.

When it comes to concerns with off-campus housing there are no shortage of issues. This year, however, Denys Prevost plans on tackling a major safety concern, which is illegal housing.

Yesterday afternoon the City of Welland off-campus student housing committee met to prepare for the beginning of the Niagara College school year.

“We are in enforcement mode,” said Prevost.

“If I go into an apartment and it’s unsafe to be there, how can I leave a child there? If he dies that night, I go to jail. It’s fundamentally a safety concern. We’re going to communicate with landlords … and do spot checks.”

The committee formed about four years ago after concerns were raised by residents in areas with off-campus student housing. The group, with representatives from Welland fire department, Niagara Regional Police, Niagara College, Niagara Region and the City of Welland, has made a lot of headway.

But their work isn’t over yet.

Prevost prepared a package for the committee, which will be brought to city council’s attention.

It all came about recently when Prevost had a call from a concerned mother from Toronto with a son attending Niagara College.  She was concerned his apartment didn’t have a window in the bedroom and felt it wasn’t safe.

“We went and checked it out,” he said. “It did not meet the fire code …”

It sparked some concerns for the fire chief, who then started to do some checking on his own. Prevost went onto the Niagara College off-campus housing website and the Student Administrative Council site to find out more about off-campus housing here. The link brings students to a Ontario Student Rentals site.

“Here is where the problem starts,” he said, adding that he is not pointing fingers at the college, which is not responsible for the listings but does provide a link to the off-campus housing list.

“Just by the descriptions (of the rentals) it raises some flags.”

Prevost said he can’t say for sure whether these listings are illegal units or even that they are unsafe, but it’s a risk he’s not willing to take.

“We need to put together a working group to deal with this,” he said.

Tackling it, however, presents a number of challenges. The fire department, he said, doesn’t have the manpower to visit every potential off-campus student housing rental. As well, being at the Welland campus for orientation day and talking to students may be too little, too late, he said. By that time students have already moved in and probably have no plans in finding a new residence.

The committee, said fire prevention officer Tom Nenadovich, has done a lot to curb bad behaviour such as noise infractions and teaching students to be better neighbours with the city’s Good Neighbour Guide.

“We’ve done well in creating peaceful neighbourhoods, what we haven’t done is make safer neighbourhoods,” said Nenadovich.

Prior to the fire department raising its concerns, Niagara College had discussed its plans on providing students with some important information with respect to their off-campus accommodations.

In order to educate students more on landlord/tenant rights, the college’s off-campus student housing website will soon have additional information, encouraging students and landlords to have apartments inspected by the fire department.

“We want to ensure homes are being inspected every year,” said Glenn Murray, a Niagara College office administrator who is also involved with off-campus housing.

“We will put more information on our site to better educate the students, landlords and parents on safety issues. Students need to know what their rights are.”

Murray said there are some landlords that are “not as attentive” to their rental properties, which can create unsafe living conditions for students.

Mike Mantesso, chief building official for the City of Welland, said he knows all too well that some of the landlords allow the homes to fall in disrepair and their lawns to be overgrown and then it becomes an issue for bylaw enforcement.

“We have two bylaw enforcement officers and 50 bylaws to enforce,” Mantesso said.

“Our biggest problem is noise, our second biggest problem is landlords who live out of town and do nothing except rake in the cash from students.”

Mantesso said there have been changes made to the Municipal Act, which may give cities more authority in dealing with student housing and apartment building owners.

There is a provision to license rental properties.

“It’s a fairly contentious issue,” said Mantesso, adding that it is something the city will be reviewing with its licensing bylaw in the coming months.

The committee members also addressed some routine concerns, such as noise issues and partying, which last year weren’t much of a problem.

However, the students will be provided with additional information to again curb such behaviour and additional officers will be on bicycles patrolling off-campus housing areas to show their presence and talk to students.