By Jennifer Higgs
Drug dealing, prostitution and disruption in its buildings have forced the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation to consider a new security initiative to improve safety on their properties.
Fifty-thousand people live in the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation’s (OCHC) 15,000 social housing units, and most tenants say security needs a boost. One man living in an OCHC rooming house said when he moved in two years ago, he didn’t know security in the building existed.
“It’s like a prison for a lot of people,” says one 32 year old, who didn’t want his name used for safety reasons. His friends live in a rooming house, where tenants live in one room and share washrooms. He says he has lived in the area since he was 16 and he has seen it all; gun shots and stabbings, and it continues to get worse.
Ron Larkin, OCHC general manager, says the organization has been working to come up with security solutions since last fall. He says the OCHC, Ontario’s second largest landlord, has worked with other support agencies and security experts.
Their new plan, released April 14, takes into account consultations and experts’ suggestions. It focuses on increasing tenant involvement and security personnel, says River Ward Coun. Maria McRae.
“Unless we can get our tenants to let us start helping them, we’re not going to succeed,” said Larkin.
There will be changes in staffing and the plans will be in place by September. The board has regular meetings where a tenant community association has the chance to voice its concerns.
McRae says the problem is many of the tenants do not take pride in where they live. If you love where you live, you probably would not put a hole in the wall or urinate in the elevator, says McRae.
Spokesperson for the OCHC, McRae has been on the board since last July, when Mayor Bob Chiarelli made a complete overhaul by replacing all previous board members.
“We maintain our buildings, we provide people with a roof over their heads. We are not a social service agency, and that’s where we have to start lobbying other levels of government and other agencies to come in and work in partnership with us.”
Larkin calls the new security a paradigm shift. “We’re going forward with a new approach of delivery of security services.”
“The tenants are the cornerstone of the security initiative,” said McRae. “There has been an increase in evictions in the OCHC since this new board took over with our very firm mandate on crime.”
Many social housing units have garbage bags littering the halls and outside balconies. Inside one rooming house, loud music fills most of the floor.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says there have been many security problems in the OCHC buildings in her ward. “I’m pleased to see a report coming forward.”
She says a security company now checks these buildings at night for people sleeping in stairwells. “We need more than building security,” Holmes said. She says tenant associations and community support is important.
Social housing in Ottawa has an extremely long waiting list. Holmes says there are 12,000 people waiting for a period of seven years. She says many of the tenants who live in social housing may be from a shelter, and need help with social skills.
Holmes says she does not agree with a program where the provincial and federal governments put money into rent supplements instead of building new units.
McRae says she does think rent supplements are a good idea, and there is no point in building new units until they have better maintenance of what they have.
“What matters to me the most is that we’re also erasing the stigma and negative connotations that are associated with social housing,” says McRae, “Let’s return the community and the home to Ottawa Community Housing.”