The owner of the Villa Motel on Main St. East says the system that is in place to help the homeless and drug addicts is failing the people it's supposed to help.
Tony Koziol says the system is broken, but he's become the flashpoint of public anger.
"I'm the pin cushion of society for everything that society has gone and done wrong and we're just the convenient whipping boy for politicians and everybody in between. That's fine. I'm used to it. I've got a thick skin now," Koziol told BayToday.
See: Zufelt calls out owner of Villa apartments
The businessman says he's concerned about what is going on at one of his rental properties, the old Villa Motel on Main St. West, but he's not getting much cooperation in solving the issue.
Koziol said it would take a minimum of three hours to explain what is wrong with the system and why people are falling through the cracks. He says the Villa Motel situation is a microcosm of what is ailing society.
"What I have to say is, the situation down there is still evolving. And you know it isn't over. There's so many small parts because in the end, you know, I've been using the term 'the system' but what is the system? The system is literally a conglomeration of various government-created agencies, boards, commissions yada yada yada, that are tasked with the job, with various mission statements, various regulations, to go and sit there and solve our society's problems, go take care of us, you know, father government.
"But literally the execution of every single facet of it comes down to a human being that is in control of the pain, in control of the keyboard, and when they go and fail, small, large, in between, then other parts of the system fail as well."
Koziol used as an example the Mobile Response Team which consists of police officers and crisis workers acting together to respond to complex situations where mental health or addictions may be a factor.
"It's just like John Q Public. When I go and read that MPP Victor Fedeli has gone and said, 'Oh look we've got a hundred thousand dollars coming to the mobile crisis team'' John Q public is going to read that and think, 'Hey you know, those poor people that are walking on Main Street, they're going to sit there and be taken care of because the Mobile Crisis Team is going to intervene. They're going to go and reduce the phone calls for the police department. We're going to sit there and take care of the people with mental health issues.
"Yeah, except for one thing that's missing, the key pivot in the whole situation, is those people that are sitting there mentally distressed, drugged out, or whatever, can go and tell the cops and the mobile crisis team, as long as they're not sitting there and causing harm to somebody else or to themselves, they can go and tell them to go and f*ck off."
See: Mobile Crisis Response Teams get cash to continue service
Koziol says he's had an extended conversation with a person from the fire department. "I said listen. I've got a couple of hoarding situations down there. You know that you guys are going to have to sit there and try to deal with that. 'Oh yeah, we're used to that.' Well, yeah okay of course you guys are used to it because I'm not the only landlord with that sort of thing in the city."
Koziol expects that instead, a couple of agency-type people, those on the front lines from DNSSAB (District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board) should take the lead in dealing with the situation before the fire department prevention officer shows up and "stresses them out."
"You know it's an underlying deep illness that these hoarders have got and they need to be treated properly. But instead, what happens is the fire department is going and sitting there and basically pushing, pushing, pushing, and stressing out these poor people with mental health issues.
"You would think as a citizen going and reading all the news articles, all the service agencies' mission statements, that all these people would be somehow taken care of, would be looked at, would be proactively dealt with. Why are they out here then if they don't have the capacity really, to take care of themselves? Well, it's because we as a society 30 years ago got rid of the psych hospital, and we also got rid of the legislation that said thou shalt go and be incarcerated because you can't take care of yourself and properly feed yourself. The system needs to have a self-examination."
Koziol also responded to criticism that he shouldn't be renting to criminals, but insists people need to understand the circumstances.
"Okay, technically I am renting to a whole bunch of criminals. One is a paranoid schizophrenic. She went and took her little puppy out. She's actually a guest and she took the puppy out, let it shit in front of somebody's door, and didn't pick it up. And the person that it was pooped in front of, picked it up, and he happens to also be, from my understanding, talking to the police. He's a paranoid schizophrenic and he goes and picks up the poop and thinks that was another guy and another place. He didn't know where it came from and smeared it on the door of this other unit.
"That tenant comes out and calls the police and the paranoid schizophrenic is still actually sitting in jail. He's probably up at the psych hospital getting an assessment believe it or not. He might be charged with mischief, yeah, so technically he's a criminal.
"I'm not worried about defending myself, that's okay. I worry about my clients. The bottom line is the majority of them are okay people. I want them to be properly looked after."
Koziol, president of the Near North Landlords Association visited the Echo Essentials studio to share his perspective on handling 'trouble' tenants. Koziol, owns the Villa Motel in the 300-block of Main Street East, and is vice-president of the NNLA. He was named by a nearby business owner as part of the problem because he rents to people associated with criminal activity (fencing of stolen goods and drug dealing). He was joined by Tricia Marshall, president of the NNLA, who said the long time-frame and cost of removing tenants isn't easy or cheap under the current system. Koziol said it's a complicated matter, noting that the same people just move a little way down the road or find another landlord willing to let them do business there. And he said raising rents to avoid marginalized people isn't the answer because it would merely leave more people on the street. It was a wide-ranging interview that provided more insight from another viewpoint. Check out Echo Essential Podcast here.
