Closure a relief for neighbours
Town Ward election candidates join group’s gathering at former Bolivar St. rooming house
Paul King-Fisher says that the tenants crammed into a dilapidated rooming house on Bolivar St. that the city shut down last week were “living desperate lives” — but also that he and other neighbours were fearful over drug deals and violence there.
Last week the city fire department closed the red-brick house at 494-496 Bolivar St. after an inspection found several fire code violations.
It couldn’t have come soon enough for King-Fisher and his neighbours, who say there has been violence and drug-dealing in the building since a stabbing there in 2011.
After that a neighbourhood association was formed to keep watch, King-Fisher said — and the violence never stopped.
At a gathering on the sidewalk outside the home on Tuesday afternoon, about 25 neighbours talked about it.
They described fist fights in the street, car alarms in the middle of the night and public indecency — not to mention piles of garbage spilling from the front porch.
One neighbour — who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retribution — said one tenant of the house was dealing fentanyl, heroin and crack, as well as pimping, and would threaten the neighbours to keep them from calling police.
“It ends up terrorizing a whole neighbourhood,” King-Fisher said.
The sidewalk gathering was a chance for the neighbours to talk — and also for Town Ward candidates to touch base with them.
All five candidates running for Town Ward were there: Dean Pappas (who’s running for reelection), Kemi Akapo, Jenny Lanciault, Jane Davidson and Jim Russell.
Scott Donovan, a neighbour, said it came as a “relief ” to many neighbours that the house was sealed by the fire department.
“Yet as a consequence of this, some people will be left homeless,” he said.
Christine Freeman said the Bolivar Neighbourhood Residents’ Association was formed about seven years ago following the stabbing.
Neighbours took note of suspicious vehicles, called police frequently and made presentations to city council. She was unhappy it took so long for the city to shut down the house.
“I think it could have been done eight years ago,” she said.
But Pappas said a new city bylaw that allows greater latitude for fire officials to inspect rooming houses allowed the city to take action.
“We just need clean, healthy places to live — that was the purpose of the bylaw,” he said.
Jane Davidson, who’s running
for council, said she was one of the original neighbourhood association members. Although she no longer lives nearby, she did in the association’s early days.
She described the house as “a living, breathing example of complete breakdown”.
It’s what happens when you put desperately poor tenants together with “an immoral, unscrupulous landlord.”
Owner Si-Hwa Liou of Scarborough is scheduled to appear in Ontario Court of Justice in December to address the additional Fire Code charges.
Kemi Akapo said she’s heard there were 14 bedrooms crammed inside the house — which leaves at least 14 people homeless.
She said she was frustrated with the landlord — and also frustrated for the neighbours and for the people rendered homeless. “What can be done to hold landlords accountable?” Akapo asked.
The municipal election is Monday.