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The new team has been in place for about 18 months, with fire, police and health officials working beside bylaw officers to issue tickets and fines.

In a report to committee, the team celebrated the 32 tickets, 23 warnings and 36 cleanup efforts this year. It has 110 properties under investigation. Pleckaitis said they recognize those are just ways of measuring activity, not a measure of the more peaceful neighbourhoods they want to achieve.

In some cases, a warning is enough to clean up the property, but in several others, the property owners refuse to address issues and are taking the tickets to court, Pleckaitis said. “They’re intentional about not complying.”

Edmonton’s problem property task force was formed in 2016 after years of lobbying by community members. A small group of them tracked problem properties — pulling ownership records, provincial health inspections and Edmonton building permits, zeroing in on those in the inner city causing the most fear and stress for neighbours.

Most were rental properties or rooming houses, some with illegal suites the community members fought to have shut down through the subdivision and development appeal board.

In late 2014, the Edmonton Journal used some of community members’ work for a profile on Carmen Pervez, a particularly well-known inner-city landlord who had served a prison term for mortgage fraud. That pushed the issue further onto the public agenda.

Neighbours alleged his homes held drug dealers who were terrorizing the area. But some tenants said he gave them a chance when no one else would. Few landlords will rent to people just getting out of prison.