VANCOUVER THROWS EVERYTHING IN THE BOOK AT CRACK HOUSES

No-holds-barred tactics only way to control them, pair says

They've appeared all over the Lower Mainland in the past 15 years:
Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey, even quiet suburbs like Port
Moody.

But crack houses don't show any signs of disappearing soon.

The most that cities can hope to do is find out about them quickly and shut
them down before they turn from open sores into the urban equivalent of
flesh-eating disease.

They now have a coordinated group that swoops down on problem houses -
usually identified by a flood of calls from distraught neighbours about
traffic and prostitutes - to throw everything in the book at them, from
electrical violations to drug charges.

"I deal with one a month for sure," says Constable Jill Proctor, the
"problem-oriented policing" coordinator with the Vancouver police force.

She, along with Vancouver's deputy chief licence inspector Barb Windsor,
work together to identify and shut down problem houses. "We're all over it."

The two say they have a sense that Vancouver is far ahead of the pack in
tackling drug houses with a joint approach.

The worst they had in recent - and even long-term - memory was the Nortel
Apartments at 1190 East Hastings, which they managed to completely close
down only in the summr of 2000.

Unlike most crack houses, which usually evolve when a careless, naive or
indifferent landlord allows a bad group of tenants to move in, the Nortel
Apartments was deliberately set up as a prostitution and drug-dealing
business, say the two.

"It's the biggest one we've ever had, as a set-up," said Windsor.

Police reports from the time show that one room was set up as a main
drug-dealing room.

"It was a drugstore. There was a table across the door at the front and it
had everything: drugs, pipes, everything," said Proctor.

The apartment building, which according to city documents from a licence
hearing, is owned by an Alice Fong and operated by her husband, Leung or
Leon Lam, had 34 units rented out to known sex-trade workers for $30 a day.
Heavy interest was charged if the women were late with their rent.

Although the building was shut down and is still vacant, the two were never
charged criminally.

More recently, a rooming house at 333 Columbia Street known as the
Evergreen, was shut down in May after reports that it was out of control.

At least two people died there in drug-related cases in the past year,
according to the coroner's office.

Windsor says that every year, the city deals with 50 to 70 problem houses,
which can mean anything from seriously unkempt property to a vacant house
being used as a squat to a drug house.

About 10 years ago, the city brought in a bylaw requiring landlords to get
a business licence to rent to tenants - a consequence of one notorious
house on Carolina Street that pushed the city to look for new weapons. The
city uses the bylaw to shut down problem houses, which are typically rented
to several people.

About five years ago, the city got even more aggressive about problem
houses and teamed up with police.

"I think we are quite successful," says Windsor, who admits residents
always think the city should act faster.

"We use our powers much more than we used to. We don't let things get that
bad any more."

She and Proctor say most crack, drug or prostitution houses start when a
landlord lets things slip.

"It's just the type of person that moves in. They're just involved in that
kind of business and that's what they continue doing."