Stephen Hoyland leads the impromptu tour down a narrow wooden staircase into the cold, wet unfinished basement of 378 Cannon.

It's not a journey for the faint of heart.

Blankets, pillows and paper are jammed into a basement window, under the joists and into foundation cracks to keep out winter drafts.

Electrical wires hang from the low ceiling and junk and debris are piled everywhere.

Amid the clutter, there's a sink with two small cupboards and a bit of counter space -- also piled with junk. That's what passes for the apartment's kitchen.

Behind, a few sheets of drywall have been cobbled together to fashion a filthy washroom.

The toilet isn't fully functional and on cold winter days, a sheet of ice forms in the bowl, making it unusable. The shower doesn't work so the apartment's tenants have to use a sink for bathing. That's what passes for the apartment's washroom.

Back up the stairs on the ground floor, the rest of the living space consists of one small room about six paces by six paces and a one metre-wide enclosed front porch. Until recently, Stephen was sleeping in that thin sliver of a porch on three chairs placed side by side by side, kept warm by just a space heater.

Now he sleeps on a bed in the small front room and his brother and wife sleep on another bed. Add in a refrigerator, a hot plate, an air hockey table, for some reason, and a fake potted fig tree and there's not much room for anything else.

This is home for Stephen, his twin brother, Richard Lichty, both 64, and Richard's 63-year-old wife, Violet Lichty.

All for $700 a month.

Hoyland describes himself, his brother and his brother's wife as "slow," without a hint of shame.

The three are developmentally delayed, all three can neither read nor write and they all survive on Ontario Disability Support Program payments.

The two brothers look like they've wandered off the set of Duck Dynasty — which is fitting, perhaps, because their life story has a made-for-reality-TV quality to it.

Hoyland and Lichty met each other for the first time just 10 years ago at a soup kitchen in Brantford.

One of the helpers told Hoyland he had a twin coming to the soup kitchen. Turns out it wasn't a figurative twin; it really was his twin brother.

When they were born in Kitchener in 1949, their mother couldn't raise both of them, so she gave up one of the twins for adoption. On her deathbed, she told them they were twins separated at birth.

They've been inseparable ever since. Hoyland and the Lichtys moved to Hamilton nearly four years ago because Richard Lichty needed cancer treatment at the Juravinski Cancer Centre.

Before moving into the unit at 378 Cannon St. E., the trio lived next door for nearly three years in an apartment at 382 Cannon.

Both 378 and 382 Cannon are owned by a Markham home renovator named Andy Wang and his spouse, Zhu Ping Yu.

When the units are fully occupied, they collect an estimated $2,000 a month in rent from the three apartments in the decrepit house at 378 Cannon St. E., based on figures supplied by the tenants — as much as $24,000 a year when all the units are rented.

The house was bought in Yu's name for just $66,000 in September 2010.

Next door, it's pretty much the same story. When fully occupied, the three units at 382 Cannon — just as decrepit as 378 Cannon — would bring in more than $20,000 a year, based on the tenants' figures, for a house that cost Yu $88,000 in November 2009.

Their $700 monthly rent — Hoyland and Lichty dispute Wang's figure and say it's $720 — used to get them a bigger apartment in 378 Cannon. But about a month or two after they moved in, they say Wang came in and erected a makeshift wall across the front room that cut off their access to the main floor kitchen and washroom so he could carve a new bachelor apartment out of their space.

They say their rent stayed the same and they say Wang now charges more than $500 a month for the newly-created unit on the other side of the new wall.

Hoyland and Lichty say they didn't speak up because they were afraid they'd be tossed out of their apartment with no place to go.

In an interview, Wang denied he created the new apartment after the brothers and Violet Lichty moved in, saying the unit was built before they moved in.

"We built the basement washroom and the small kitchen and then Stephen moved in," said Wang, who speaks English with some difficulty. "I don't know what they say.

"When they were living there, we didn't touch anything. We don't change anything."

Wang, who acts as landlord for the two properties, is now the subject of a fraud investigation launched by Hamilton police. The allegations are that Wang may have defrauded the three vulnerable tenants in connection with utilities payments when they were living next door at 382 Cannon St. E.

Police are investigating allegations the three developmentally-delayed tenants were unwittingly paying the electricity charges for the entire property, which includes two additional apartment units and a small storefront shop currently filled with construction material and debris.

Wang says he uses the shop as his office. A broken toilet sits inside the front door.

A summary of the twins' utilities bill for parts of 2010 and 2011 shows they were paying about $300 for electricity every two months for their small apartment at 382 Cannon St. E.

Wang acknowledged he has been contacted by Hamilton police and he also acknowledged there is only one hydro meter for 382 Cannon St. E.

"With these two gentlemen, I don't know what's going on," Wang said. "The police gave me a call and I'm very confused.

"I try to co-operate with the people."

Wang said the brothers paid the hydro bill only for one or two months before he transferred it into his name because they were having difficulty paying it. The bill summary provided by Horizon Utilities, however, shows the brothers were being charged for at least eight months and it took another year of payments to a collection agency to clear off a hydro debt that had built up.

Wang also said he was paying half the electricity bill because the trio indicated they couldn't afford it.

Hoyland and Lichty deny Wang was paying half the hydro bill.

Wang was also cited for a long list of fire code violations at the two properties in June.

Wang said the fire department never came back but he expects to meet with them next week. He also said he has fixed the fire code problems already.

"I explain to them it's an old house," he added.

The city indicated it has launched investigations into bylaw and property standards violations for the buildings and there are outstanding property standards charges that have been added to the tax bills for both addresses.

Wang said he believes the conditions of his two properties are acceptable for his tenants.

"Of course," he said. "You don't see (the houses) before.

"Yes, I think people are living there no problem.

"Because these houses are maybe over 100 years, we try to fix them nicely," Wang added. "I don't know what kind of people they are but we try to do good things for everybody."

Let's continue the tour of 378 and 382 Cannon with Teresa Chase.

In November, Chase moved into the second-floor unit at 378 Cannon directly above Hoyland and the Lichtys.

She's 47, suffers from diabetes and is an Ontario Works recipient, so she doesn't have a lot of options.

Chase walks to the end of the yard and points to the carcass of a rat on the gravel.

Last Sunday evening, she saw the rat scurry out from under her stove and run across the kitchen floor. "He come barrellin' out, and he was bouncing there in the corner," she said.

First she threw her toaster at it, then a big ceramic mug, leaving the rodent stunned on the floor. She finished it off with a hammer and threw the corpse into the back yard.

From the back of the yard, she waves her arm in the direction of the two houses and tears well up in her eyes.

"People see cases like this and they think 'Well, they must be animals,'" Chase said. "That's not the case.

"If he tells you he has bad tenants, no he doesn't."

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Her own apartment is well-maintained. She says she painted it herself.

For the $750 a month Chase says she pays, she gets a small kitchen, a bathroom, a small bedroom and another small bedroom she has converted into a tiny living room.

But Chase also said she's not allowed to use her stove. The last time she tried to use it, she said, she received an electrical shock. . She discovered the bottom element of the stove is missing and the wires are exposed.

She also says she can hear rats in the ceiling and walls. She sleeps with the lights on.

"I'm afraid to go to sleep at night," said Chase. "If a blanket touches my face, I scream because I think it's a rat."

Next door at 382 Cannon, one of the units is vacant and for rent. The asking price, according to Chase, is $800 a month.

The kitchen floor is covered in dirt and the front door of the stove is broken.

Up a steep staircase with no handrail is a tiny living room, two small bedrooms and a washroom. There are no glass panes in the windows of the bathroom or the living room and the vent in the living room is covered with duct tape to keep rats away, according to Chase and Hoyland.

Next to the unit's front door, there's a washing machine sitting outside on a stoop. This, according to Chase, is what passes for the building's "on-site laundry facility."

Wang said he put the washing machine outside as a favour to the tenants.

"They tell me sometimes they don't have the money for the laundry," Wang said. "I say maybe I have an old one."

Wang acknowledged the machine can't be used in winter.

"Right now, we closed the water already," he said. "Use it in the summer time."

John Corba, 69, lives over Wang's storefront shop at 382 Cannon. He has been living there for three years. He says he pays $700 a month for his small apartment.

For three decades, Corba had a barber shop and hairstyling business in Orangeville.

He came to Hamilton and would sing karaoke at bars around the city. He liked singing fan favourites, such as Mambo No. 5 or O Sole Mio, or maybe even some of the classics from Enrico Caruso.

For five days this winter, Corba was without water. His neighbours brought him water in pop bottles.

"What are you going to do?" Corba said with a shrug. "The owner is a money-maker not a money-spender."

Wang said it took time to figure out why Corba wasn't getting any water but once he realized there was a burst pipe in the basement, he fixed it.

Corba says he has been bitten by a rat in his apartment, and he also says his unit has bedbugs and cockroaches.

Wang said he doesn't believe there is a rat problem in either property. He said he called a pest control company a couple of months ago to deal with the problems.

"They don't complain to me again so I think the problem is fixed," said Wang.

Since moving into the apartment at 378 Cannon, Teresa Chase has become a passionate advocate for the three vulnerable people living below her.

She has explained to them they have rights as tenants and has made several phone calls to different agencies to try to get them help.

Catholic Family Services was told of their plight, and reached out immediately through the Gatekeeper's Program, an outreach program designed for seniors who live in extreme self neglect.

"We work with the police, public health and licensing in the city to get to the root of the problem, and in this case there were issues with the landlord," said Linda Dayler, executive director of Catholic Family Services.

Dayler declined to discuss specifics about the trio's case. The main concern with all cases, she says, is to make sure all people who might be living in questionable conditions are safe as they work to improve conditions right away.

"In this case, it's looking for alternative housing with these individuals, and that's happening," Dayler said.

The family is now on the program's urgent list.

The team of agencies working to help the tenants include Catholic Family Services, Hamilton Housing, ODSP, the city's bylaw enforcement department, Hamilton police and the fire department.

Ingrid Boiago, the seniors support officer with the Hamilton Police Services, is also involved. Her unit deals with hundreds of similar cases every year, although most are not necessarily criminal issues.

"I had had about 300 (cases) in 2012 … some of the cases did have legal ramifications, 65 per cent are quality of life issues where we need to involve social services, we are sort of the liaison," said Boiago.

But the cause isn't always the landlord. In general, Boiago said, the public doesn't realize how isolated some seniors are, especially in the inner city where most of the social services are located.

"I think it does happen a lot because these people don't complain, they don't know who to complain to. They don't have family and friends who are looking out for them, they are alone and isolated," Boiago added.

In some cases, people are scared or embarrassed and they may suffer from dementia or developmental delays.

In the meantime, Chase said she's also looking for a new apartment but admits it's hard to scrape up another round of first and last month's rent so soon when you're on social assistance payments.

"If you are on a fixed income, how can you afford to move?" Chase asked. "What are poor people supposed to do?"