Prince Albert Housing Authority seeing rise in meth units

Prince Albert Housing Authority photo. A photo of the damage to a Prince Albert Housing Authority apartment “meth” unit. Devos included a number of such photos in his presentation to council on Monday. He said such photos are an average example of the damage caused by meth users.

Housing authority GM: ‘It’s an increasing trend’

Emokhare Paul Anthony, Daily Herald

Prince Albert Housing Authority general manager David Devos has advocated for more meth detectors in the authority’s housing units to prevent staff members from being exposed to the drug.

Devos said gangs and drug use are two of several challenges the authority faces as part of their efforts to provide adequate, affordable, and secure housing for the community. He made the comments during a presentation at the first Prince Albert executive council meeting of the year.

“I’ve got staff who had to go in ambulance to the hospital because of meth exposure,” Devos told council during a presentation at Monday’s executive committee meeting. “I’ve had meth exposure a number of times already and not knowing, because you don’t know. You can’t see it. You can’t smell it, and it floats … so as you go into a unit and as you’re coming in, those particles are moving. They’re attaching to your shirts, your clothes, they’re entering your mouth, and you don’t even know it.”

Devos said he purchased 50 meth monitoring devices last year and put a proposal together in hopes the Saskatchewan Housing Authority would adopt it. Those efforts were unsuccessful, although Sask Housing decided to use meth detectors in vacant units this year as a pilot project.

Devos said the PA housing authority has a problem with some tenants who smoke meth and blow it into the furnace or the bathroom vent fan thinking it will exit the building. That doesn’t happen, he said. Instead, it keeps circling in the suite, sometimes causing health problems for staff members after the tenant is evicted.

Units contaminated by meth can take 120 days to remediate, Devos told council. As of 2024, there were 35 family units in Prince Albert Housing Authority buildings “contaminated with meth”. The cost of cleaning them averages out to around $28,500 a piece.

The number of meth units is increasing every year, Devos added. In 2023, they deatl with 25 such units. In 2022, it was only 11.

“That eats away at our (maintenance) budget, as well as the provincial meth budget that’s been allocated,” he told council. “For housing authorities, PA’s got one of the highest meth uses of that budget in the province.”

“It’s an increasing trend, unfortunately,” he added. “We are investigating a number of different avenues where maybe we can try to limit the amount of money we spend, but we do expect to see at least 35 meth units again this year.”

Devos said tenants who damage a unit have to pay back all charges for fixing and repairing it or they can’t rent again. However, he said, after two years those damages are written off, and after five years, it’s “totally removed from the government books” so those tenants can rent PA Housing Authority units again. 

Devos said tenants must pay a minimum damage deposit of $353. All units are inspected by maintenance people at least twice per year. When asked by council if they could do monthly inspections, he said there are too many units and not enough staff.

The Prince Albert Housing Authority operates 953 residential units in the Prince Albert, 528 of which are family units.

For more on Devos’ presentation, see Friday’s edition of the Daily Herald.

–with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald

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