By Janessa Bishop
Somerset city council candidate George Guirguis is threatening to sue the city for ignoring senior citizens who say they feel unsafe living with drug addicts and prostitutes in a MacLaren Street apartment building.
‘There’s no real control over the building at all,” says resident Arthur Lewis, a senior. “Even if they hire security people, they’re not much good because they can’t arrest anyone.” Lewis has lived at 415 MacLaren for many years and says the building is nicknamed “The Crackhouse.”
The seniors are concerned because there is little security and maintenance in the building, says Guirguis, something the city has done nothing to rectify. The building is maintained by the city and houses people with low and moderate income.
“I had one lady tell me that she has to ask other senior citizens to come in the elevator with her because she is so scared,” says Guirguis.
In a letter to the City of Ottawa, Guirguis suggests the city hire a 24-hour security guard and conduct a full health inspection of the building. Ideally, he says he wants to see the apartment converted back to a seniors’ residence.
It would be very difficult to change the building to a seniors’ residence, says Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes. In order to do this, the city would have to apply for social status through the Ontario Social Housing Reform Act, and would have to overturn the Ontario Human Rights Code.
The apartment building used to provide social housing for seniors, but was converted to an all-ages home in October 1999. The decision was made because there were too many non-seniors who needed a place to live, says Ron Larkin, who manages Ottawa Community Housing.
“There was no way we could justify not making those units available,” says Larkin. “We had too many young people on the waiting list, and not enough seniors.”
In-house safety officers were introduced in April 2005 to address security concerns, says Larkin. There are currently eight full-time and 12 part-time officers on duty in social housing buildings across the city, he says. The officers do not remain in any specific buildings, but make rounds on a daily basis.
It’s hard to kick people out of the building because there are too many laws protecting tenants’ rights, says Arthur Lewis.
Many seniors moved out when the building changed to a mixed residence, he says.
Many tenants are afraid to speak up because they don’t want to be singled out, says Coun. Holmes.
“We’ve got crackheads in here, we’ve got everything in here, you name it,” says a resident who wanted to remain anonymous.
Guirguis says he contacted Holmes, Mayor Bob Chiarelli and sent a letter to the city. He received no response and is trying to get support from seniors for the lawsuit, he says.
The building also houses a number of people with mental illnesses.
There is a worker on-site to take care of these individuals, and make sure they don’t cause any problems, says Holmes.
“They have their problems, and it’s sort of scary in a way,” says Arthur Lewis. “But it comes with the territory.”