Priorities

posted March 17th, 2019 at 5:56 PM

I own 4 apartment buildings and the amount of time and effort I am spending combating this drug/homeless epidemic is staggering. The exterior stairwells constantly smell like urine. The Maintenance worker has to spray these areas in each building every morning. Often times there is a person sleeping there with all kinds of garbage, trash, and used needles. Often times the homeless/drug addict is crazy and is swinging around a broom or a hockey stick. I have tenants many of which are women who do not deserve to have to pay upwards of $2000 a month in rent to deal with this. The police are often called and they deal with the situation but this person is usually back on the street in 24 hours doing the same things. Its not the police officers fault as their hands are tied. The alleys constantly have soiled mattresses and tents. Its just a bad situation for everyone. People should not be fearful of walking around their own city. I sympathize with these people but I think we need to make it a crime to camp in front of buildings and throw them in jail immediately if they do not leave. We also need to make it 100% illegal to have any illegal drugs on you. If you do you go to jail for six months immediately. We care more about the well being of homeless drug addicts then the people who go to work everyday and try to make this city a better place.

20 Comments

Wow

Mar 17, 2019 at 7:59pm

Slumlords blaming their mentally ill, impoverished tenants. That’s a new one! Lol!!

Security

Mar 17, 2019 at 8:20pm

Perhaps having security during after hours can help to minimize such headaches. If you do decide to hire contact security for your buildings, do be careful as some security companies and their guards are bad. Some don't monitor their guards which some guards take the advantage of sleeping on-site or be off-site on "breaks" for long duration of time. I wish you luck.

Fake Confession

Mar 17, 2019 at 8:59pm

Just saying

Why the fuck?

Mar 17, 2019 at 9:03pm

Do you rent to these people then?

WithYou

Mar 17, 2019 at 9:20pm

You will get a lot of hate for this post but you speak the truth. It has to change.

Anonymous

Mar 17, 2019 at 10:11pm

We need to make unaffordable housing illegal bozo. Problem solved.

I was a car dealer.

Mar 17, 2019 at 11:00pm

With the same problem. Damage,smell ,needles etc
Mounted a speaker up high with looped opera music playing,loud enough to bother anyone sleeping. It worked.
Unfortunately this was the year before "Who Let The Dogs Out" which I suggest would be better- looped on a cheap MP3 player I'm sure it'll help.

Understand

Mar 18, 2019 at 7:54am

I work in the management industry (condo’s) and even in some high-end buildings downtown they have trouble with addicts gaining access to the building and sleeping in stairwells or trying to break in to cars and / or units. Like you say, the police do virtually nothing so the same people are found over and over again.

However, you mention that your tenants “have to” pay $2000 in rent, but it’s you who is charging that much, just because you can. Part of the homeless problem is due to the greed of landlords who have jacked up the rent on units in spite of knowing the severe hardship this is causing to the majority of tenants in the city. If you own 4 buildings you have a choice in terms of how much profit you truly need to make, and if you cared about your tenants you wouldn’t be gouging them just to grab as much money for yourself that you can. I think perhaps you might think about your own contribution to the homeless situation before you comment.

@Wow and @Why

Mar 18, 2019 at 8:59am

He's not complaining about his tenants,but homeless drug addicts sleeping around his buildings.
With your lack of comprehension skills, it seems to me that you two likely belong to that group

Pro tip

Mar 18, 2019 at 9:16am

Criminalizing things doesn't make them go away. Solving problems actually requires that we address root causes - and in this case, it's the housing crisis and lack of metal health care. Those are solvable problems, but not as long as we fall prey to blaming individuals the way you have. When you see addicts, I see adult survivors of child abuse, exploitation, and other things too horrible to name who have never had access to support, healing, or recovery. I know this very well, having just about ended up there myself. Not because I haven't worked hard my entire life (often multiple jobs at a time), but because abuse impacts manifest as PTSD and destabilize everything I build. There but for the grace of god go I, and you too. Feel fortunate, property mogul pal, and advocate for systems without so many cracks for people to fall into.