VIDEO Caron Ave. Residents Fed Up with Nearby Dumping Ground
A group of Windsor residents is fed up with a nearby home which was recently used as a dumping ground for garbage.
The property at 658 Caron Ave., south of Wyandotte St. West, has been vacant for 11 years according to neighbours, it was damaged in a fire two years ago and recently neighbours saw a truck dumping a huge pile of garbage in the alley. They caught it on video (see below).
They say they have been suffering for years.
There is a problem with homeless people using the property, as well as seeing rats, wild life and raccoons.
They have called the city and was told there is a 'due process' which could take up to 15 days before the city can clean it up or charge the property owner.
Residents want the building torn down and are pushing for stricter bylaws and penalties dealing with rundown homes and illegal dumping.
April Kennedy lives next door and has had it.
"I am at my wits end," she says. "When you are up half the night listening for sounds and you name it."
She says the stress is too much.
"You have rat feces all over your back porch, I can't enjoy nothing, I can't enjoy family, I can't enough nieces and nephews, I can't do nothing because no one wants to come here, I want to have sleepovers with my nieces and nephews that I love but that can't happen because it is not safe."
Waseem Hussein's home backs onto the property and says the garbage is attracting the animals.
"As neighbours, it has been a nightmare. We are afraid to go out at night and drive or go to our cars because of the racoons and wild animals."
He says it's not safe.
"We have been having issues with the homeless people going into the place and going through stuff. We found condoms, injections and it is not a neighbourhood you want to live in, not a neighbourhood you want to raise your children in."
Hussein says the city found the driver of the truck who did the dumping and charged him, but according to Hussein, the driver is well known to the city as a repeat offender.
The city also issued an order to the property owner to repair the home, which is boarded up, back in April, but the homeowner filed a notice of appeal.
(The video below is courtesy of Waseem Hussein)