A Montreal engineer and part-time professor is voicing his frustration at Quebec’s slow housing tribunal after he alleges a new tenant in an apartment he owns sparked chaos on the streets and rattled the neighbours.
Francois Tardy rents out an apartment on a Hochelaga Maisonneuve street, which he said rented to a new tenant on a one-year lease in March. That lease, the engineer and Concordia University professor said, led almost immediately to complaints.
The issues reported by those around included “people going up and down all the time, smoking crack all over the place, sitting down in that location, defecating and urinating over there” and “howling at people” and “screaming at each other.”
Tardy told Global News someone else who rents from him described the problem in stark terms. “One of my tenants called me and he said, ‘You realize that you just invited a crack house up there?'” he recalled.
The engineer shared videos with Global News that appeared to show people consuming drugs in the street. Tardy noted that an elementary school is just steps away from the address.
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“I thought it would be a quick resolution, but it was not,” Tardy said of his attempt to evict the tenant. “It was much more complicated than I could ever imagine.”
Reports to police were met with advice to go through another chain, he said. He was told to try to get an eviction order through the provincial housing tribunal and that, without it, police would have few options.
According to Tardy, police searched the property but said they did not find evidence that merited criminal charges.
“They searched the place, but they couldn’t find anything incriminating because everybody’s organized to carry small amounts of drugs,” Tardy alleged.
Global News contacted Montreal police about the situation. The force did not directly address the alleged activity but, when asked about Tardy’s allegations, did point to arrests recently made on the same street.
Last week, a Molotov cocktail hit Tardy’s building. Not long after, police say they conducted an operation targeting a drug-selling hub located on Desjardins Avenue in Hochelaga. A media release from Montreal police said officers had gone door-to-door in the area to reassure residents after they completed an operation targeting a drug outlet on the street.
Investigators also stressed that peace in the neighbourhood was a priority for the force.
“They’re taking it seriously, but that doesn’t mean that my troubles are over,” Tardy said.
A hearing at the provincial housing tribunal set for June was delayed until September.
— with files from Global News’ Isaac Callan
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