Safety questioned at MARQ

Last week, a Reddit post was created from a user with concerns about the MARQ, a student housing centre on 167 Bricker Avenue. The concern said the building does not provide any emergency contact numbers to their tenants. The original poster, Andrew, who requested his last name be withheld, told users if anyone broke into the apartments, the police couldn’t do much to kick them out. According to Andrew, the building management never act on break-ins and only kick people out the day afterwards.

According to Andrew, the building management never act on break-ins and only kick people out the day afterwards.

“The rooms were just a total mess, they were just trashing the living room and you name it, they ate my food all the time, they were just loud all the time,” Andrew told The Cord.

A MARQ resident himself, Andrew said non-resident individuals, also known as “squatters,” have broken into his apartment even after he locked his windows and doors. The squatters usually hang out in his living room and sleep in the unoccupied bedrooms.

“A lot of those people don’t stay there because the two rooms that weren’t occupied, so over the span of two months I’ve seen at least eight people use that room,” he said.

“From what I understand according to the lease agreement it says that no one’s supposed to stay in that place over night, yet I see like four or five people staying in the living room and at least two or three people staying in those unoccupied rooms.”

According to Andrew, one night when the squatters were knocking on his door and window, he called the police. When the police arrived, Andrew explained they couldn’t do much because the building management wasn’t available.

“The cops said he couldn’t really do anything about it, a part of the reason was because he couldn’t talk to the building’s side.”

While there are security cameras surrounding the building, Andrew said their management doesn’t pay attention to them.

“If they did pay any attention they would’ve acted on the fact that they see these people coming through the window every othernight and they don’t do anything about it.”

Andrew claims he has talked to the building management about his concerns, but said they haven’t made much change.

Andrew said the first time he reported to the building management about his concerns was in the middle of February, but they haven’t changed anything.

“Up until now they haven’t really changed anything, they told me that they do go in the next day and kick people out but really, what’sthe point of that, they haven’t fixed the problem,”

According to Andrew, the building has been contacting him after he published the Reddit thread.

“They still haven’t own up to their responsibilities, they’re supposed to provide me with a safe place while all of this is happening and they haven’t done any of that.”

The Cord reached out to MARQ, but has yet to receive a statement.

More to come.