Years of complaints to police and municipal officials about suspicious activity at a neighbour's house have come up empty, so a Chatham woman is now considering legal action as a last resort.
The Complaints
Dayna Mintz lives with her husband and their two daughters at 179 Colborne St. in Chatham, just down the road from 27 Princess St N.
She says for the past three years, she has lived in fear of break-ins, thefts, and vandalism at her home because of suspicious activity that is taking place at that specific address on Princess St.
Dayna says she has taken steps to help secure her property, and that she calls the police regularly, but adds "it isn't enough to make my two teenage daughters, my husband, and myself feel safe."
Her specific complaints range from fights breaking out and doors being kicked in at 27 Princess St N. to finding syringes and drug-related paraphernalia showing up outside of her door. She alleges there is also music blaring at 6:30am, as well as "shouting and foul language at all hours of the day and night."
"From a parenting point of view, it's very difficult to have to tell my daughter's friend's parents to keep her a little longer until I call... when it's safe to bring her home simply because of what was going on out on the street with the police and whoever," says Dayna, whose husband, Ken Mintz, agrees.
"Everything from knife fights to haggling over stolen goods," says Ken. "There's constant traffic... a lot of yelling and very sketchy people."
Dayna and Ken's eldest daughter Natalie Mintz says she feels she is missing out on regular teenage activities because of the suspicious activity in her neighbourhood.
"Growing up my mom was very hesitant to let me go anywhere, I couldn't play with neighbourhood kids, I couldn't go for a bike ride on my own... I can't walk alone at night," explains Natalie. "It's because there's so many people out there that are so questionable... you can tell they're on something."
Adriana Mintz, the youngest daughter, says she doesn't feel safe in her own neighbourhood either.
"I don't even bother asking to go on walks anymore, because I don't feel safe. The only place we really get to go on walks is in the cemetery, because it feels safer there than in this neighbourhood where I live," explains Adriana.
Ken says his family isn't getting anywhere on this issue.
"We're just spinning our wheels and enough is enough," says Ken.
Dayna says she has tried to sell the family home twice to no avail.
"Every single time there's a viewing, guess what they see? Traffic non-stop or people coming down from that apartment staggering," says Dayna.
Having spent the past few years contacting police, a municipal councillor, and a local community agency with her complaints, but seeing little to no change, Dayna says legal action may be her last chance.
"I am considering getting a lawyer and suing the landlord directly simply for emotional damages for my whole family," says Dayna, adding she openly suffers from severe depression, anxiety, and panic disorders and that the situation just down the road from her "amplifies" those concerns.
Dayna says her main complaints are with the landlord and the tenants, though, not the local police force. She says, from her perspective, it appears officers have their hands tied somewhat when it comes to enforcement.
"They're trying and they're doing what they can, but unfortunately that's ridiculously limited," says Dayna.
She says on a provincial level, the power needs to be put back in the hands of the police.
"They have to be able to do their jobs and make arrests and keep them in jail, where they should be -- some of them -- and offer help to those that need it too," says Dayna.
Police Response
Chatham-Kent Police Service Chief Gary Conn assures the Mintz family that police are not turning a blind eye to the property, but says there is much more to the issue than what can be seen at first glance.
"I think what we need to do is we need to examine the root cause of some of the matters associated to the address, which are complex human and social issues that cannot be resolved by just necessarily enforcement alone," he explains.
Conn says officers have visited the residence more than 60 times since the beginning of 2016, adding that only seven of those calls resulted in criminal charges being laid.
"[The number of calls] is definitely high when compared to other residences," says Conn. "For the same nature of calls, too, a lot are dealing with drug-related problems, mental health, addiction, and some poverty issues, too."
The chief adds that the police service has executed several warrants regarding drugs and stolen property at the Princess St. address.
"We've tried for decades to arrest and charge our way out of social issues -- for example, mental health, drugs, homelessness, and poverty -- to limited success," explains Conn. "I think it's important to realize that this is a collaborative effort by stakeholders... it's not just police doing enforcement."
The chief says one of those stakeholders will have to be the property's landlord.
Further complicating the issue, Chief Conn says a recently enacted Bail Directive in Ontario makes it almost impossible to keep someone in custody unless they've committed a serious crime.
"A lot of these individuals that we've arrested and charged in regards to this address... they're released either that day or the very next day and returned right back to their residence at 27 Princess St... and back to their old innate habits," he explains.
Conn says the property is definitely still on the police service's radar and will continue to be monitored.
Support From Community Partners
East Side Pride Chair Marjorie Crew says she is also well aware of the problems going on at 27 Princess St N.
"What we've done in the past with that property is when we have the opportunity to go out and make some observations and things, we report them directly to the police or the related agency that might be able to help," she explains.
Crew says East Side Pride also encourages neighbours to collect and present valid information to police in a timely manner. She says the best solution is keeping track of suspicious activity and continuously turning it in to police.
As a neighbourhood association, she says the role of East Side Pride is to help educate people.
"We're going to educate you about what you can do to work with the police and systems when you have suspicious activity going on next door to you," she says.
Chatham Councillor Michael Bondy says he has been communicating with the Mintz family for the past two years, too, but there isn't much he can do to help.
"My job really is to connect and communicate with other people, obviously that would be the police force in this case, and the building inspectors," says Bondy.
He says he is not sure what can be done.
"Frankly, I don't know the solution, because unless a landlord takes some action and even then the landlord's hands are kinda tied," says Bondy. "Bad people are bad people."
Bondy says there is a number of houses in Chatham that are chronically filling up with criminals, so it's not just this property that is creating problems.
He says he has been trying to help the Mintz family but adds that, in his mind, it is "hopeless, really."
"To consistently be charging them and then clogging up the court system, which is what happens, it doesn't matter because they go back to the same activities anyways," explains Bondy. "Between the police and building codes, that's about the extent of enforcement."
Bondy says tenant rights are so strong now that it is very difficult to get rid of misbehaving tenants.
-With files from Matt Weverink