CHURCH GETS TOUGH ON ALLEGED CRACK HOUSES

East End Parish Aims To Deal With Crime, Alleged Slum Landlords

A local church's move to collect addresses and photographs of alleged
slum landlords, crack houses and trouble spots in the neighbourhood
has some area politicians and police worried.

St. Monica's Anglican Church, on Gerrard Street East near Greenwood
Avenue, began collecting the information earlier this month after
hosting two well-attended community meetings to deal with crime
issues and landlord-tenant issues across its east-end parish.

According to Rev. Janet Sidey, the church has collected information
on a total of 17 addresses, and publicized the location of one.

She told The Mirror that the church is simply trying to help the
community improve itself. The meetings took place after the church,
which operates a weekly food bank out of its storefront operation,
sent out students to research the needs of the community.

"What came back were problems with crack houses and slum landlords,"
Sidey said.

The first meeting, which took place in January, drew 130 people from
across the parish, which is bounded by the CNR tracks to the north,
Coxwell Avenue to the east, Jones Avenue to the west and the lake to the south.

"The people from the neighbourhood were really quite fed up with what
they perceived to be inaction," Sidey said. "After that we asked
people to sign up."

The group of residents coalesced into St. Monicas NAG (Neighbourhood
Action Group). That group has been collecting information from
residents about alleged crack houses and bad landlords - information
that includes photographs. They've posted photographs of one house.
And they're deciding what to do with the rest, Sidey said.

"We haven't decided that yet," she said. "On these potential crack
houses we want more than one source saying that we think it is a crack house."

Sidey said the group is considering posting the information on the
church's website.

But for Ward 32 Councillor Sandra Bussin (Beaches-East York), the
church has already overstepped its boundaries. She told The Mirror
she intends to complain to Anglican Bishop Colin Johnson.

"This approach is not helpful," Bussin said. "People could presume
that certain people are responsible and take certain actions of a
vigilante sort. I have real concerns about this."

Ward 30 Councillor Paula Fletcher (Toronto-Danforth), whose ward is
actually home to the church, was more conciliatory.

"They want to be an advocate for people, for people against bad
landlords and for people as a whole to get crack houses out of the
area," she said.

"They're very zealous in their efforts to eliminate the crack houses.
This is sometimes the way some storefront operations operate -
pointing a big finger, hoping to scare people out of the
neighbourhood. The one place you could run into problems with this
would be if you misidentified the house. I would not want my home
misidentified as a crack house. But I think that there are those in
the community who feel strongly about this, and they've reached the
breaking point."

Staff Supt. Wayne Peden, who recently took charge of Toronto Police
Service's 55 Division, gave the church "full kudos" for taking such a
proactive step - although he disagreed with the tactic of posting pictures.

"I can't say I think that's the right thing to do, but I know the
reverend and the people there are very committed and feel this is the
right way to go," he said. "It's not something I would support, but I
do understand the concerns and desires."

Peden said police have been giving the area a great deal of
attention, making arrests and increasing police presence - including
that of the drug squad.

He acknowledged there are some problem addresses. But he added that
many of these addresses aren't necessarily crack houses, just
lower-rent rooming houses where some of the tenants engage in illegal
activities.

"There are people who can't afford anywhere else to live," Peden said.

"You don't want to be grouping people. I think there are a number of
these houses where there are people who are engaging in illegal
activity, but to say that everyone who lives in that house is a
criminal, that's a stretch. Everybody deserves a proper test of
whether or not they have in fact done something wrong. Just because
somebody perceives something as being wrong with the best of
intentions, an area can be labelled."