ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — “After multiple calls to the police, and to the city, I am frustrated and feeling very neglected. What is being done to help the residents of Spencer Street? It feels like our street has become a free for all for illegal activity and it is just getting worse.”
That’s an excerpt from an email to Coun. Maggie Burton from a concerned Spencer Street resident in July.
In September, The Telegram detailed a wide range of issues on the street, including frequent fighting and loud noises at all hours, drug use, gunshots, suspicious fires, property damage and excessive garbage.
Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary drew attention to the issues during a city council meeting on Aug. 17. She said she was arranging a collaborative approach to find solutions.
The Telegram recently followed up and learned several provincial government departments, city officials and other community organizations are working together to deal with the situation.
Specifically, the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corp. (NLHC) and the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development (CSSD), the Department of Immigration, Skills and Labour, and the Department of Health and Community Services are working with community partners on a holistic approach to address poverty, housing and homelessness concerns, according to an emailed statement from a CSSD spokesperson.
An NLHC spokesperson told The Telegram that NLHC staff recently met with Brian Warr, minister of Children, Seniors and Social Development, O’Leary and MHA Alison Coffin to get a better understanding of the concerns on Spencer Street.
The spokesperson said the NLHC doesn’t own or subsidize any housing units on the street, but acknowledged the importance of working collaboratively to address housing-related concerns.
Documents detail concerns
Meanwhile, The Telegram filed an access to information and protection of privacy (ATIPP) request with the city to get a better understanding of the issues over the past year.
Residents’ 311 calls and emails to city officials highlight an increasingly desperate situation on the street.
An email from a resident to former ward councillor Hope Jamieson on Nov. 13, 2019 said, “Over the past four months, I have become increasingly worried about the future of the street. While there have been frequent disturbances over my stay, the violence and aggression has escalated lately.
“Over the past month, police have visited almost daily, there has been (sic) two fires over a month, a sickening amount of debris and garbage present, and more and more altercations between residents.”
In a follow-up email to Jamieson on July 30, the resident wrote: “Regarding your advice to call the RNC, we have tried to talk with them and they do not seem to hear us. When they arrive on the street, there is normally an escalation of violence (if they come). When we hear violent outbursts, we are hesitant to call the RNC because of the way they’ve handled people in the past on our street. We’ve seen them assault people that are in crisis and needed mental-health interventions or a hospital.”
The resident also said the situation had “only gotten much, much worse” since last fall.
“Over the past four months, I have become increasingly worried about the future of the street. While there have been frequent disturbances over my stay, the violence and aggression has escalated lately."
The resident said the root cause was overpopulated boarding houses, with residents who received little support.
Another resident, in an Aug. 6 email to O’Leary, said the root cause of the street’s issues stemmed from “the terrible landlords and the amount of these types of rental properties in such a condensed area.”
Another email that month also mentioned property management concerns: “How someone can get away with having a tenant living in a property that does not have a working front door and the only window for escape in case of a fire being boarded up with plywood, is beyond me.”
311 calls
A worker at 311 summarized a call from a frustrated resident on April 28 who called to complain about one property on the street where people were fighting and throwing items out windows, and smashed a mirror on the road and threatened neighbours with bear mace.
The caller noted drug-related activity, and said they found needles in front of their own property.
“RNC has been called on numerous occasions and nothing happens,” reads the note.
A sample of 311 calls and emails from May through August this year indicates residents complained about trucks coming from outside the street to dump up to 90 bags of garbage on the street for garbage pickup the next day; broken windows; an overpopulated bedsitting house with about 15 people allegedly living in it; loud noises at all hours; excessive garbage left outside homes, including items such as shopping carts, broken glass and used condoms; and calls over the span of 10 days in July that complained about a property with a backed-up sewer spewing out over the street.
Escalation
An email dated Aug. 6 from a resident to O’Leary and Burton begins, “As of today, the situation is no better. It has gotten much worse.”
The resident described gunshots fired the night before, leaving bullet holes in a home.
“What is it going to take for serious action to be taken? Or at least provide the residents of Spencer Street with answers? We’ve had two suspicious fires and now gunshots within a year," the resident wrote.
“We’ve told the police that there are drug dealers on the street. Spend an hour or two on our street and you’ll know, too. … There is (a) criminal element that is flourishing on Spencer Street and without intervention, be it social work, counselling, mental-health interventions or ensuring that the homes are livable, or rehabilitation, it will only further decline.”
The same day, another resident wrote to O'Leary about the situation on the street.
The resident said if the gunshots happened anywhere else, it would be all over the news.
“…But since it was our neighbourhood, no one cares,” they wrote.
An Aug. 10 email to O’Leary and Burton described a four-day “bender” on the street in the days after the shooting.
The resident listed several homes that “are having a great time. Meanwhile, the other residents are left wondering why the RNC isn’t doing anything.”
The resident said police are directing residents to contact the city about tenant and landlord issues, while the city is encouraging residents to call the police.
“What is it going to take for serious action to be taken? Or at least provide the residents of Spencer Street with answers? We’ve had two suspicious fires and now gunshots within a year."
On Aug. 13, a resident wrote to the city about a steady deterioration on the street.
“On a daily basis, I see people who are facing issues of substance abuse, unstable housing, poverty and violence. … I value social justice, and would like to see people get the supports that they need. But at this moment I feel that everyone on my street is left to fend for themselves.”
Toward solutions
“I cannot believe what the residents of Spencer have had to tolerate,” O’Leary wrote in an Aug. 6 email to city staff, RNC Chief Joe Boland and Burton.
O’Leary said she was taking the issue to another level, and asked for their co-operation.
The same day, there was an email from O’Leary to Coffin in which she said it will take a collaborative effort to address residents' concerns.
That spurred a process that has now begun, with meetings between many groups to try to find some solutions.
A resident also suggested practical solutions to some of the concerns on the street, such as a garbage bin for trash, and a disposal box for used needles.
Emails between Burton and city staff in August indicate Burton put in a request with staff to have a sharps box installed.
