Dirty domiciles - Part three in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie

By Laurie Watt
BARRIE - Part three in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie.
Last year it was the police. This year, it was City Hall.
College Crescent homeowner John Rumney has had to make more than one call when it comes to students living in his neighbourhood.
This year, it was concerning the year-end piles of furniture, some broken, plus weeks of accumulated household waste, abandoned on the front lawn of the house next door.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
According to Rumney, a girl moved out on the last Saturday of April and left her furniture behind for city crews to pick up – and taxpayers to pay for.
“There are couches, chairs, a broken bookcase and broken furniture, all on the front lawn. A truck came back (a few days later) and put two bags onto the lawn and drove away. I was stunned. I’ve never seen anything like it in the 16 years I’ve been here.”
Last year, it was the noise. The group of students that rented from an absentee landlord then were louder.
“They would keep me up at night,” he said, noting he’d had to keep his windows closed last May.
“They were out front and were drunk, yelling … at the top of their lungs. All I said was ‘Will you keep it down?’ They flipped out, literally freaked out,” he said.
“They stood in front of my house threatening to beat me to death and burn me out of my house. Nothing came of it.”
Still, he called police.
And while he had to call the city to remove the debris, he still has to abide by a one-bag limit and another 100-kilogram annual limit for heavy and bulky items.
“We’re told to tighten our belts, but in front of that house, there are five bags at a time,” he said, adding taxpayers like him are having to pay to clean up the messes others create.
Then there’s the parking issue. College Crescent, he said, is “choked with student cars.”
The garbage at year’s end, the parties throughout the year, the cars almost constantly, Rumney says it changes with the seasons, but adds: “It’s a never-ending cycle.”
Part 1: Back to basics
Part 2: Student housing can be messy