Police Target Homeland Inn
Thursday, August 8, 2013 @ 3:30 PM
Prince George, B.C.- It has been labelled a “Prolific Property” in Prince George.
It is the Homeland Inn, ( formerly the Ranch Motel) on the 1600 block of Victoria Street near downtown Prince George and it has been the location of 24 investigations for a variety of issues since July 18th.
Drug related offences are the most common, and that lead to the execution of two separate search warrants over the past week.
During the evening of Saturday August 3rd, members of the Prince George RCMP’s Crime Reduction Team with assistance from the General Duty Section, executed a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act search warrant for one of the units at the Homeland Inn. Upon entering the unit, a 31 year old male and a 51 year old female were located and arrested. A quantity of cocaine and cash was seized. Charges are pending against the 31 year old male.
On the evening of Wednesday, August 7th, the RCMP executed a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act search warrant on another unit at the Homeland Inn. During this search, a 42 year old female and a 51 year old male were arrested. A quantity of cocaine was located and seized.
While in the residence, police observed the smoke detectors to have been removed. Prince George Fire Rescue attended and conducted an inspection. A list of defects will be provided to the property owner and Prince George City Bylaw for follow-up.
"These two search warrants are examples of how the Prolific Property Program is working" says Inspector Brad Anderson, Operation Officer for the Prince George Detachment. "Each warrant was investigated and executed by different sections of the Detachment working with a common goal. We will continue to focus on specific properties that cause a great amount of harm in the community."
Other investigations centred at the Homeland Inn over the past three weeks include:
·
Domestic assaults including one where part of a finger was removed· Assaults
· Weapons
· Alcohol related fights
· Arrest warrant
· Break and Enter
· Theft
· Mischief
· Motor Vehicle Act – No vehicle insurance and no Driver’s Licence
· Drug possession and drug trafficking
The Prince George RCMP’s Prolific Property Program is part of the Detachment’s Crime Reduction Strategy aimed at decreasing Criminal activity in the City. All members of the Detachment, whether in uniform or plain clothes, focus a portion of their duties on policing locations identified as Prolific Properties.
Since the beginning of 2013, dozens of properties have been targeted throughout the VLA and downtown areas of the City. Many search warrants, seizures, arrests and charges can be directly attributed to this program. The Crime Reduction Strategy also includes added attention to Chronic or Prolific offenders.
Comments
And why don’t people like to go down town?
Way to go RCMP.
The City has the power to cancel the business license for this so-called business.
What is the City waiting for? This is a blight on our community and a total waste of RCMP manpower and resources. They have given it enough time to get its act together. This is a Chronic and Prolific offender.
As long as they pay their property taxes and business licensing fees, why would The City do anything? They got their money, that’s all they care about.
Close it down and they move somewhere else. At least as it stands we know where they are.
I love this town.
Pal, so the more we have of those the better?
And the cure? I know. Pass another law. That’ll work!
This place has been a crime hotspot for years. There’s probably more illegal activity going on there at any given time than legal.
At least its all in one spot. I assume the landlord does not reside at this residence. He just collects the welfare cheques directly and doesn’t have to worry about the ‘social problems’ created by his tenents as they try to supplement their income by ‘any means possible’.
he lives out of town and owns 31 other properties in the vla
We can make all the remarks we want, but at the end of the day we have a serious crime problem in this City.
Is incarceration the answer?? Doesn’t seem to be. I don’t think there is the political will to take on this problem, so it just continues to grow.
It appears that there isn’t any government plan to assist the present residents to get into alternate clean safe housing that they can afford. So they stay and the RCMP has to go there daily. One can pass more laws but if they are not enforced they are useless.
There was a story in the paper about this place and talked about a couple of men who shared a one bedroom($575/month)that had a $1900 combined income. It said that they ate at the soup kitchen to help make ends meet. Picture with the story showed the coffee table had bunch of Colt 45 cans and cigarette packages. Flat of beer must be 30 bucks and god only knows what a pack of butts costs.
At the end of the day it is clear that they have made a choice to live there. Impossible to help someone who has no interest in changing their lifestyle.
Quick search of kijiji shows that there are other places that they could live for only slightly more money.
If I didn’t have to pay rent or eat, I’d be rich. Living indoors and eating regularly takes most of money.
At least as it stands we know where they are, WHO?? People that chop other peoples fingers off?? this motel is a block away from a School, its a mess broken windows, garbage all around , blankets on the windows and I could go on and on. The place is costing a fortune for the tax payers. There is two police cars there at the moment.
I really like the idea they have put into place in Vancouver, I think it is. They turned shipping containers into low cost homes. The city has lot of property downtown and I think something like this would work very well here too.
Proper lowcost housing is one step a lot of people use to get themselves back on their feet, so I think it would be a very good investment for this town.
A shipping container is proper low cost housing?
The shipping container project in Vancouver is for at risk women who are currently clean. There will also be some space for older women who have stayed clean for some time to mentor the younger women. Impression that I got the rules for drugs and alcohol will be strict.
Harbinger: The boys in today’s paper said they ate at the soup kitchen. In the photo it looks like it is a diet of barley sandwiches with a nicotine chaser at the Homeland Inn.
Looks like the place is making the 11 o’clock news on Global BC tonight:(
slinky:
The containers looked like real nice small apartments, one bed one bath with in suite laundry facilities.
Check the Global website- video is likely still there.
http://globalnews.ca/news/756847/old-shipping-containers-converted-into-modern-homes/
Global BC story on the Homeland
http://globalnews.ca/video/773040/decrepit-prince-george-motel
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