Pubdate: Fri, 06 Feb 2015
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Terry Davidson Harris
Page: 9

PARKDALE BUILDING A DRUG HAVEN?

Drugs and prostitution go "hand in hand" at a subsidized low rise 
building in Parkdale where a senior was found with a fatal stab wound 
to the neck Monday, police say.

Toronto Police were still waiting for autopsy results Thursday to 
officially determine how a 70-year-old tenant of a Toronto Community 
Housing Corp. building at 25 West Lodge Ave. died, his body found in 
his small basement-level unit with a bloody gash to his neck.

The detective handling the case said the death is "leaning" toward 
being a suicide.

Both 11 Division investigators and TCHC are familiar with the 
problems at the building.

"When it comes to this building, the drugs and the prostitutes go 
hand in hand in most cases," said Det. Kirby Reddin, who's leading 
the investigation.

But a handful of the building's 93 residents were already speaking up 
about long-standing problems, including an issue around some tenants' 
practice of letting drug dealers and prostitutes in.

"It's improved ... but we still have problems," said resident Glenn 
Harris, 68, who has come to call the building "senior crack village," 
explaining that younger people are "involving older people in drugs 
and trying to get them to (be) clients."

But there is little TCHC can do legally when it comes to tenants 
bringing guests into their units, spokesman Sara Goldvine said in an e-mail.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom