A vice grip was the only solution to one of the many problems Michael Segal, ArtSci ’07, had with the Ghetto house he lived in last year.
“We didn’t have a front door knob,” he said. “I lived in a pretty crappy house last year.” Segal said he needed to use pliers to activate the mechanism on his front door.
He said his house’s problems included a flooded basement, plugged drains and poor insulation, not all of which were fixed by the end of the year.
Naomi Lutes, AMS municipal affairs commissioner, is hoping students like Segal will benefit from the newly-formed Student Property Assessment Team (SPAT).
“It’s a service provided to help [students] improve the housing [in Kingston],” she said. “Through information and inspection and action [SPAT will be] proactively improving off-campus housing.”
Lutes said SPAT’s role is to act as a liaison between students and city housing inspectors.
“We all know housing is an issue in Kingston—SPAT is filling the void between students not calling [the city] and problems existing,” she said.
Lutes said SPAT will be walking around the Ghetto during weekday afternoons, performing external inspections of the houses and also responding to requests to perform internal inspections of student houses.
“[SPAT inspectors will be] doing external property checks, making notes, sending things off to the city to make sure they get fixed,” she said. “[For] internal inspections [SPAT will be] responding to calls or knocking on doors.”
Lutes added the inspections will not be limited to the Ghetto.
“If they call [SPAT] and are Queen’s students, we can get people to answer their questions,” she said.
Lutes said in addition to inspecting houses, SPAT will be compiling a historical record of all the houses they visit.
Laura MacLean, a master’s student and a new resident of Kingston, said she likes the idea of keeping records.
“[It would be helpful] coming into the city as a new person [and] getting an opinion on housing,” she said.
Lutes said SPAT will also encourage students who may be afraid to the city to make reports to the city housing inspectors.
“Why don’t students call the city for [an inspection]? Fear—they don’t want their house condemned [or to make] their landlord angry,” she said.
Rebekah Massouh, Sci ’09, agreed.
“It’s a good [thing]—students are too scared if something in the house is not working, too scared to tell their landlord something’s wrong,” she said. “Landlords [think they can get] away with things because we are students.”
Lutes said an inspection by the city is not the only option for students who call SPAT.
“If after a SPAT inspection [the tenants] don’t want a city inspection, [the SPAT ] will strongly recommend a city inspection,” she said.
“[But] if they want to by the city, [SPAT ] can help by drafting letters to a landlord. Their main purpose is information and helping tenants.”
Ali Sifton, Comm ’09, said he is considering using SPAT when he moves out of residence.
“I would use it—it sounds helpful,” he said. “[I don’t want to be] in a house with mould or lights that don’t work.”
Matthew English, ArtSci ’07, said he would also call SPAT if he thought his house needed help.
“I wouldn’t just randomly use it,” he said. “But if a house needed to be assessed [I would use it].” Lutes said SPAT will begin training its this week, and should be active in a month. Both the Municipal Affairs Commission and city inspectors will conduct the training.
In addition to inspecting houses, Lutes said SPAT will help nominations for the Golden Cockroach Awards, an AMS initiative to recognize the city’s best and worst student housing landlords.
Lutes said SPAT was created to fulfill Recommendation 11 of the Principal’s Task Force on Community Relations.
“It is one of the 13 recommendations, to create a [housing inspection wing] of the AMS,” she said. “From that came the actual form and function [of SPAT].”
Lutes added that SPAT is not in its final form.
“[This year will be] trial and error,” she said. “We are hoping to have a good system by the end of the year.”
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