WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE RIFF-RAFF MOVE IN

Lepage Manor, a public housing project in Carlington, is being overrun
by druggies, hookers and other desperadoes, but authorities are trying
to clean it up in the hope that tenants and nearby residents can feel
safe again.

Crackheads, muggers, hookers and many frightened residents.

Greetings from Lepage Avenue, a mix of modest homes and an Ottawa
Community Housing project called Lepage Manor, not far from where
Kirkwood Avenue meets Merivale Road. Most of the rent collected by the
city's housing corporation from the 309 one-bedroom units from 1390
and 1400 Lepage is based on tenants' income. And most tenants are
either unemployed or "underemployed" -- meaning they make very little
money and their rent subsidy is adjusted accordingly.

Only eight tenants at Lepage Manor are actually paying market-value
rent, according to River Councillor Maria McRae, and many who are
subsidized are battling personal problems, such as substance abuse and
mental illness.

The Lepage apartments are a few streets over from the much larger
Ottawa housing project on Caldwell Avenue, where, of course, there is
more trouble, and good reason to be sick to death of being scared.

At 1390 and 1400 Lepage, residents say it's not uncommon to run into
desperadoes, whether they're men or women, buzzing up to suspected
drug suppliers who live in some of the units. Barb Derick, who lives
at 1390 Lepage, said it's routine to be aggressively asked for money,
cigarettes or even prescription painkillers by people in the hallways,
on the street or loitering at the front door of her apartment building.

And hookers are more than willing to provide their services outdoors,
which might explain the used condom and condom wrappers I saw around
the Ottawa housing property on Friday.

Disturbances, including heated arguments, fist-fights and even
muggings by drug addicts in need of money for a fix, have been part of
the culture for years, says a resident who lives in a house near the
apartments.

The trouble seems to have started after the housing agency decided
that the buildings, built in the mid-1970s and now in need of an
estimated $5 million to $6 million in renovations, would accommodate
tenants in all age brackets and not just seniors.

Another tenant, who moved there in 1992, about the time the building
lost its seniors-only designation, can't believe how the quality of
life in the building has changed, especially in the last five or six
years.

Besides the troublemakers, he said the problem is compounded by their
friends, many of them vagrants who are looking for places to crash and
show up at all times of the night.

After having lived at 1390 Lepage for seven years, 50-year-old Derick,
who says she suffers from an anxiety disorder, has convinced the
housing agency to move her to a quieter project as soon as possible.
"It's really a terrible situation." said Derick.

Some Lepage residents, especially those who live in the houses across
the street from the apartment buildings, are also worried about the
comings and goings at a nearby bungalow. It's the home of Jim Ryan, an
elderly man who has lived there for years. McRae said the home is
known as a flophouse to authorities. A nearby neighbour said she's
really not as worried about her safety as she is for Ryan's. She
thinks Ryan's seedy acquaintances are taking advantage of him because
he is a kind man and can't say no when asked for help. She said Ryan
may not even be aware of some of things that have gone on at his property.

"There's too much weirdness going on in there," she
said.

A pensioner, Ryan admitted a few days ago that he has allowed
unsavoury types into his home over the last couple of years
(neighbours say he has actually been associating with them for about
five years) and even rented a room out to a couple. But, swore Ryan,
he gradually got rid of them as he discovered their bad habits --
crack cocaine, nasty, explosive behaviour and the tendency to get into
trouble with police.

"They're gone and they're not coming back," Ryan told The Public
Citizen in a short interview during which his phone rang three times
from callers looking for a ride. One wanted to go to Penny Drive,
situated in a troubled low-rent neighbourhood near Bayshore. Ryan said
he regularly taxis acquaintances from Lepage Manor in his minivan to
earn money. He takes one of his regular riders for methadone treatments.

Nearby neighbours said they have heard or seen little coming from
Ryan's house for the last couple of weeks. Apparently, a friend of a
relative recently moved in and is there to turn away the riff-raff
when they show up. A young couple also moved in some time ago
following a fire at their home. The woman, who was there when I
visited him this week, seemed pleasant and said she was helping clean
up Ryan's unkempt house. I wanted to suggest she bring in a bulldozer.

When I revisited the neighborhood Friday, two "No Trespassing" signs
were up in Ryan's front yard. Minutes later, I saw him drive to 1390
Lepage, where he waited momentarily before he drove back home alone.

Ryan's neighbours, meanwhile, said it has been unnerving to hear the
blood-curdling screams and incessant yelling that have come from
Ryan's house over the years. Police, they say, have been to the house
from time to time.

One neighbour said it's not unusual for her car to be ransacked, and
belongings have disappeared from her carport. Her 13-year-old lives in
fear that Ryan's acquaintances will break into their home.

Her house is equipped with two burglar alarms, though an adult is
usually always at home for fear of being burglarized.

Ottawa police, meanwhile, won't comment on "a particular address,"
although Insp. Jill Skinner said "it was raised at a (recent)
community meeting. This isn't the first time that we've heard about
it."

Police have increased their presence on Lepage and are focusing on
trouble areas identified at the community meeting. Skinner identified
drug use and street prostitution among the problems.

Like police, McRae and Jo-Anne Poirier, chief executive of Ottawa
Community Housing, stress the need for residents to be more vigilant
and to call police immediately when they detect trouble.

"One of the things we are finding is that we are not receiving enough
information from the community in a timely manner," Skinner said.

"(Residents) will come to a community meeting three months after the
incident and tell us there is a problem ... quite often, by the time
they come to the community meeting and we assess it, the problem has
moved to a different address."

One way police hope that changes is through a new Neighbourhood Watch
program. McRae said 24 households joined the program at the recent
community meeting.

Though an officer is available in the Lepage apartments one morning
every week for tenants to discuss concerns, and police surveillance
has been increased, police presence isn't the only way to help improve
the quality of life in the community, Skinner said.

Poirier said the housing agency is hoping its "Healthy Community
Initiative," introduced last May, will also help improve life for its
Lepage tenants. The program encourages residents to get involved
through programs such as Neighbourhood Watch, to take advantage of
services provided by Ottawa Housing and to form tenants' associations
that could, among other things, plan social events such as barbecues,
bingos and spring cleanups.

"When people see they can be part of the solution, there are results,"
Poirier said.

But, said a senior living at 1390 Lepage: "Nobody wants to get involved in
anything
here" because of the troublemakers who live there.

For now anyway, the housing agency, with the help of police and McRae,
seem determined to clean up the problem. McRae promises to monitor the
situation. So will The Public Citizen to see if things in and around
Lepage Manor finally calm down.

Is anything broken or bugging you where you live? Please let us
know.

E-mail: thepubliccitizen@thecitizencanwest.com