LANDLORD TRIED TO EVICT UNRULY TENANTS

Drug Paraphernalia Strewn Through Suite Of Gutted House

Before Brian Martin could evict his wayward tenants, the neighbourhood did
it for him.

Now this landlord who bought up a few Speed Avenue homes is left with a
demolished home, unwelcome media attention, and the bitter taste of an
eviction process gone wrong.

"It's very difficult -- even once you get the eviction notice to get people
out," said Martin Wednesday. "You can spend up to $2,000 to get someone out
even when you have the legal right to do so."

Neighbours entered the garbage-strewn party house Sunday evening and forced
the tenants out, tearing up everything left standing.

Martin owns at least three properties on the small dead-end street. Ten
years ago it was to be redeveloped. That never happened.

Now the street, lined with maple trees and wedged between commercial and
light-industrial zones near Mayfair mall, sits in a kind of development
purgatory, most of its 13 homes rented to a transient population.

Martin said he tried many avenues to restrict the main tenant of 615 Speed
Ave. from turning the property into a boarding house, to clean up the site
and to get police help to evict the tenants.

"I tried to deal with the situation very quickly. Everybody was going to be
gone at the end of this month but that wasn't soon enough for (the
neighbours who forced the tenants out)," said Martin.

Now instead of calling a cleaning service, he's talking with his insurance
company to see how he can recoup his losses.

The house wasn't just damaged, it was gutted. Shards of glass, chunks of
drywall and whole doors and strips of paneling clutter the hallways.
Exposed pipes are mangled, toilets and sinks are crushed, televisions
disembowelled.

But if the extent of the destruction to this house is daunting, the
underbelly is worse.

The basement suites are contaminated with the blood and needles of junkies.

A used needle lies in the bottom of a shower, where blood streamed into the
drain. In another bedroom there's all the paraphernalia of the addict's
world-- a spoon with rock cocaine, a butane can, lighters and a big box of
needles.

Rick Boudreau has lived on Speed Avenue for three years. This week the
all-hours traffic at the party house came to a dead stop when he and his
buddies took the law into their own hands.

Boudreau, caring for his daughter Tawni for two weeks, was not satisfied to
drive out the pushers and users for a while. He wanted to make sure they
would never return.

When it was all over, Boudreau and Kathleen Crocker were charged with break
and enter, uttering threats and mischief over $5,000. They are to appear in
court Aug. 12.

It's not the first time Boudreau has been in trouble with the police.

Boudreau never said he was an angel, and admits he's had a tough life. But
none of his past run-ins have any relationship to what he did to protect
his daughter this week, he said. Those tenants were a threat to all the
other children and families on the street, he said.

"It's a totally different matter, totally separate (from any other
problems)," he said Wednesday. "It doesn't mean anything. No one got hurt."

Juanita Boudreau, of James Bay, who has sole custody of their daughter
Tawni, said if her ex-husband was hell bent on cleaning up the street his
way he should have done so before Tawni's arrival.

"I think he had ample opportunity to clean up his block all year," she
said. "I don't think Tawni should have been put there in the middle of it."

But even after a bitter divorce, she doesn't question her ex-husband's
dedication to his daughter and her well-being, "He's a good daddy."

Neighbours have thrown their support behind Rick Boudreau and strangers
have called his workplace to offer support.

But Mayor Alan Lowe said there's no place for such violence in this community.

"We do not condone vigilantism," said Lowe. "I know how frustrating it can
be, people want things done immediately, but there is a process that has to
be dealt with."

The mayor said people should call the police or bylaw enforcement officers
when they have concerns of this nature.

Victoria Sgt. Bill Naughton said that the police play the final role in
this kind of situation.

"The buck does stop here, and we are the responsible agency and I don't
think anyone's contesting that issue," said Naughton.

While the constraints on police in cracking down on such activity is
sometimes frustrating for the public, it's the price of living in the kind
of democratic society we all want to live in, he said.

While police attended about 10 calls to the Speed Avenue home this year,
Naughton said, "That's probably not disproportionate given the nature of
the housing.

"Not one of those calls to that house related to drug activity."

Naughton said if the public wants to be vigilant, it should do so by
calling the police.

"We need people to tell us what the problems are in their community. In
some sense they have to work for us.

"We were never given a chance to take the action we're prepared to take,"
said Naughton. "We never got the chance to do what we do best."