RECLAIMING THEIR NEIGHBOUR-HOOD

A sign tells certain folks that they are not welcome:

"No drug dealing or drug dealers permitted in this
building."

The residents make it clear, the neighbourhood and street dubiously
dubbed 'The Hood' and 'Haney Harlem' is being reclaimed.

Three apartments on 224th Street have signed on to the Crime-Free
Multi-Housing Program. Residents who live there now tell tales of change.

"I wouldn't walk on the street even in the day time two years ago,"
said Joyce Murphy, who has lived in an apartment near St. Anne Avenue
for four years.

She feels safe now.

Four years ago, there was a "constant stream of riff-raff going
through the building," said John McKenzie, her neighbour and a member
of the Haney Community Policing Committee.

There was a drug dealer living just across from Murphy's
apartment.

"His high friends would come banging on my door when he wasn't home,"
she said, "demanding drugs and asking to be let in."

From their apartment perches, McKenzie and Murphy have seen it
all.

"It is better than crime TV," Murphy said, laughing.

She's seen cars broken into, prostitutes hustle with truck drivers and
strange men attempt to open the apartment's front door from her deck.

McKenzie and a friend from across the street chased an intruder out of
the apartment at 3 a.m.

He probably broke in to steal their mail, McKenzie
said

There were "seedy" people always walking through their back parking
lot.

Constant phone calls to the police and mayor's office brought no
lasting results.

"We got mad," McKenzie said.

Across the street, the Maple Inn was the first apartment complex in
Maple Ridge to become crime-free certified.

Bill Turner, manager of the Maple Inn, asked RCMP about the program
after hearing about its success in U.S. and other Canadian cities.

He took a one-day workshop on how to implement it, then proceeded to
make changes at the inn and finally held a safety social to introduced
his tenants to the program.

Turner then encouraged the owners of McKenzie's apartment to sign
up.

"We've been watching the neighbourhood ever since," he
said.

The CFMHP is a crime prevention initiative designed to help apartment
owners, managers, residents, police and other agencies work together
to keep illegal and nuisance activity off rental property.

It works by increasing security in apartments, educating and screening
tenants.

The program essentially displaces unwanted tenants.

Unable to find a place to live in the community as a result of the
program, the tenants move to a new area where they can operate
unhindered or conform to the standards set by the apartment managers.

Shape up or ship out, McKenzie said.

Tenants sign a document that pledges their commitment to the
principles of the program.

At the Maple Inn, Turner stipulates "no drugs" on the rental
agreements.

"We've had quite a few people in here that we didn't tolerate," he
said.

He counted 15 suspected drug dealers coming in and out of a building
nearby one day.

One summer, there was a homeless camp in the backyard. Another night,
he was woken up by the creaking sounds of shopping carts.

"It was dawn, I counted 35 buggies going down the street in a
procession," he said.

There have been police calls for fights, drug deals gone bad and even
a dead body.

The transition has had its bumps.

The Maple Inn's CFMHP sign was stolen.

Turner's trailer was sprayed with a swastika and both him and McKenzie
have been called vigilantes.

Not everyone on the street likes what they are doing.

Turner admits cleaning up the neighbourhood is a constant
battle.

He says he's creative and uses different tactics to deter
criminals.

There are cameras around the Maple Inn. He's installed more lighting
in dark areas so no one can hide.

If he can get rid of a tenant by serving them with an eviction notice,
that's what he'll do.

"I don't like getting the police involved if I can handle it myself,"
he said.

He has been threaten a few times, but isn't scared. He's got a can of
pepper spray, if needed, and his partner, Rose Walker, keeps a pipe
wrench near her bed.

Keith Wilson, co-ordinator of the CFMHP for the Ridge Meadows RCMP,
has also seen a change in the neighbourhood since the apartments were
certified crime-free.

"Anecdotally, from doing crime reports and block watch, there
certainly seems to be a reduction in calls for police," he said.

"One of the things that has happened is the tenants feel more secure
and all the neighbours and residents have taken ownership of the
building and become more aware."

In McKenzie's building, frequent alerts are sent to
tenants.

When an intruder broke in last summer, tenants were warned and asked
to make sure all doors were securely closed.

The alert even provided a description of the person and asked tenants
to call RCMP if they saw him lurking around.

The benefits of the program outweigh the glitches, McKenzie
said.

"Just ask the residents who live in our area and buildings," he said.
"They breath a sigh of relief in that they can go out and not be
confronted by drug dealers or other criminals on the way to the store."

Carrie Kerr and her 10-year-old son feel comfortable now living in
what used to be a problem drug house on St. Anne Street.

RCMP dismantled a grow-op in the shed behind her house not long ago
and McKenzie said the former tenants were nothing but trouble.

Persistence from Turner and other residents got the tenants evicted.
Maple Ridge's bylaw department forced the owner of the house to clean
up.

It's a different place today.

"I see the police around," she said. "It's come a long
way."

There are four buildings currently certified as crime-free in Maple
Ridge.

Wilson said RCMP are looking at expanding the program.

"What I hope to do in the next little while is have a crime-free forum
and get the people who are involved to talk to each other," he explained.

Maple Ridge mayor Gordy Robson is undertaking a review of crime-free
housing as part of the downtown revitalization plan.

He would like to reward apartment owners who join the program. "We are
looking at ways we can entice or require apartment owners to be part
of this program," Robson said.

The district is currently considering an option where business
licences will cost less for owners of crime-free certified buildings.

Turner and McKenzie says perseverance is the key.

Sticking together is vital, McKenzie said.

"That's why we've done fairly well." "It takes forever," Turner added.
"You clean some out, you get some back, but we've managed to curtail
it to a small roar."