DRIVEN OUT BY DRUGS

'Block Busting' Forces Some Decent Homeowners To Sell Cheap

Real estate speculators are cashing in on Edmonton's booming narcotics
trade with a scheme cops call "block busting," which sees law-abiding
homeowners forced to sell their property at cut-rate prices to get
away from drug houses.

Const. Ryan Lawley of the Edmonton Police Service said that no
neighbourhood is immune from the practice, which has links to outlaw
biker gangs and other organized crime rings.

"This is a real issue," he told Sun Media. It's become so prevalent,
that this spring the EPS will hold a training session so cops can spot
the signs of block busting before it destroys a neighbourhood.

The scheme works like this: a speculator will buy a house and rent it
to a drug dealer.

The noise, fighting and increased petty crime that comes with drug
houses will drive down the value of nearby property.

As the neighbours get frustrated and put their homes up for sale, the
speculator or his partners will quietly begin buying them up, renting
out the newly acquired homes to other undesirables to further drive
down values.

In the end, he said, speculators can buy up property in an area for
hundreds of thousands of dollars less than what it would be worth if
there wasn't drug activity in the neighbourhood.

Ultimately, they will be able to flip the land for redevelopment and
make millions, Lawley said.

Asked if block busting was an orchestrated plot, Lawley, who runs the
EPS's derelict house program, replied, "I think it would be naive to
say no. They definitely have a focus and a goal."

He added that in his dealings with drug dealers and slumlords, "it's
very rare for me to come across somebody who operates in a vacuum."

Lawley refused to say which parts of Edmonton are presently targeted
for block busting, saying that the residents are having enough trouble
keeping their property values up without their neighbourhoods being
named in the media.

However, he said, every quarter of the city is vulnerable.

"People who live in well-to-do neighbourhoods might think it won't
affect them," he said. "Let me tell you, it will. It's only a matter
of time."

Michael Walters, who used to work with the Community Action Project,
which hands out the dubious Slum Landlord of the Year award, said that
while block busting has caused serious problems in some
neighbourhoods, he wasn't aware of anyone successfully buying up
entire city blocks yet.

"I know the attempts are out there," he said.