A long time ago, 1968 in fact, my family moved to B.C. from northern Ontario and built a house in North Delta.
It was a great place to grow up with many friends and lots of single family homes where everyone knew everyone in the neighborhood.
I grew up, finished high school and moved away, the usual story.
My sister got really sick from breast cancer and died, so I re-examined my priorities and decided to move back to North Delta, closer to my existing family, which now consisted of my brother, his family and my mother.
To say the least I am shocked at the state of North Delta.
People used to have pride in their homes, yards and gardens but that is not the case any longer.
Drive down any given street and they should be renamed either Crack House Alley, Grow Op Lane, or Renters Avenue.
I hate to say it, but rental properties have ruined my North Delta. And to the slum landlords: Sell your hovels, and sell them to families who want a nice home to live in and perhaps rent the basement suite out as a mortgage helper.
Or at the very least, give your tenants an incentive to keep the house in good order and the yard cleaned up.
And let’s get city hall to check on these places. The property owner should really have to live in the house and not be an absentee landlord.
Perhaps a surcharge of some sort on the property taxes if the registered owner does not live in the home?
These are houses after all, not apartment buildings.
Houses are meant to be lived in and loved by the owner, not used as an investment or business venture.
Barb Jackson
Delta