A rooming house at 191 Grenfell Street that burned on Saturday, killing three people, would have been subject to yearly fire inspections if it had been zoned properly and licensed as a lodging home.

Over the past dozen years, the city twice investigated the property following complaints about it being operated as an illegal lodging home, but neither effort succeeded in getting it licensed.

And so those inspections never happened.

In the first instance, in 2004, the landlord promised to comply with the rules by cutting back on the number of tenants. There was no follow-up after inspectors "took him at his word."

Three years later, after another complaint, the landlord and tenants refused the inspectors entry and the file was closed.

Councillors on the licensing committee and active in housing issues that CBC Hamilton spoke to were not blaming inadequate enforcement for the inability to determine if the home should have been licensed and if so, to see that it was.

Most said the tools in the existing licensing bylaws weren't sufficient to force the issue and said there is an ongoing city hall effort to upgrade those rules.

City staff not at fault, councillors say

Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr said that once a landlord has been informed that they are out of compliance with a bylaw, "it is my view that at that very point the operator, having been informed, should make things right."

He also said, "an angle that lays blame for three horrifying deaths at the hands of city staff .. .would be, in my view, a most unfortunate angle to take."

When you crack down on illegal units, you end up displacing people. It's bad for affordable housing. - Ward 5 Councillor Chad Collins

Ward 5 Councillor Chad Collins, when asked if he was satisfied with the city's response to the complaints against 191 Grenfell, said: "The tools weren't available. If you don't have access to the unit, you're guessing."

Ward 3 Councillor Matthew Green said he's satisfied that staff acted according to the policy parameters and bylaws that are in place relating to possible illegal units.

"What I'm not satisfied with is the fact that we are facing a serious affordable housing crisis in Hamilton due to drastically raising costs of rent." Green said he's also not satisfied with "grossly inadequate social assistance rates that push low and fixed income residents into substandard units."

The balancing act between safety and displacement

Councillors Green, Collins, Whitehead, and Aidan Johnson all made reference to city hall's years-long struggle to implement a stricter licensing regime.

In their previous meetings about the issue, "most of the landlords came forward and said, 'Look, I'm not the bad apple you're looking for,'" said Collins.

He also pointed out the fact that it wasn't just landlords who pushed back against that, but tenants.

"Tenants said when you crack down on illegal units, you end up displacing people. It's bad for affordable housing. You create a housing crisis," said Collins.

"And we're facing a housing crunch right now," said Green, who currently chairs a citizen-advisory subcommittee on rental housing. So is that group working toward a stricter licensing regime?

"That's my goal," Green said.

Ward one Councillor Aidan Johnson, who has been an active proponent of rental unit licensing, said the rental housing subcommittee is considering a landlord registry of some kind.

"I use the term registry loosely," said the Social Planning and Research Council's Renee Wetselaar, who works on the subcommittee with Coun. Johnson. The committee is still figuring out the broad strokes of how it would work.

"The tough part," Wetselaar said, "is a lot of landlords don't want to be on a registry because their stock is very poor." But Wetselaar and Johnson hope to walk that narrow line between safety and displacement by making the registry an appealing thing for landlords.

The idea is, "you get onto the registry and we'll work together to make sure you've got what you need and you're up to code," said Wetselaar.

They hope to have that registry, whatever form it takes, established within the current term of council.

A Saturday night fire at 191 Grenfell street, in a neighbourhood between Ottawa Street and Kenilworth Avenue, engulfed the rear side of the home and killed 3 people.

'Not able to gather sufficient evidence'

The identities of 191 Grenfell's residents have not been released by the Ontario Fire Marshal as the investigation continues, but friends, family and neighbours have identified them as the home owner and four tenants.

We took him at his word. - Ann Lamanes, City of Hamilton

The owner and one of the tenants, a woman, survived. With four tenants, the home required licensing as a lodging home, according to the the city. City spokesperson Ann Lamanes said the city tried twice to investigate 191 Grenfell, but was unable to.

She said the house had been reported in 2004 and 2007 as an unlicensed rooming house, and the city sent a bylaw officer to investigate both times. In 2004, Lamanes said, the landlord assured the city he was cutting back to three tenants, which would put him in the clear for that bylaw.

"We took him at his word," she said.

Lamanes said the visiting officer in 2007 was turned away. "The owner and tenants were not co-operative and they all refused entry to staff. Staff could not get inside to inspect."

Lamanes added that in cases like this where a bylaw officer is refused entry, "officer[s] would gather as much secondary evidence as possible and provide it to the prosecutor to warrant a charge."

"Officers try a number of ways to prove illegal use," she said, but "191 Grenfell was one of the unfortunate cases where the file was closed because we were not able to gather the sufficient evidence."

dave.beatty@cbc.ca | @dbeatty