The British Columbia government has ordered an independent third-party review of a temporary social housing complex in Maple Ridge, in the wake of allegations of deaths, assaults and other crime.
The Royal Crescent housing facility opened in October 2018, and was intended as an emergency housing option for people living in the controversial “Anita Place” tent city.
Residents of the complex allege the operator, Coast Mental Health, has failed to provide a safe environment, along with promised wraparound services.
“There’s assault, there’s break and entries in all the rooms, there’s always dealing drugs, we’ve had deaths — over 12 deaths, the last two could have been prevented,” resident Wendy Ross told Global News.
“You don’t get a whole lot of support here.”
Royal Crescent is what is known as a “low barrier” facility, meaning people with complex mental health or substance use problems can live there.
Resident Frank Juker said the facility was better than living on the street, but not by much.
“There’s ODs every day and they allow them to get away with it, they do absolutely nothing about it. I can’t sleep at night, the place is terrifying … you don’t know who the hell is going to come walking through,” he said.
“Some of these people that come in, they’re carrying guns. I’ve seen people hurt real bad a few times over you know a little bit of dope, $20 worth of dope.”
The allegations, which recently drew attention on social media, prompted Attorney General David Eby to order the review, which he said will look at the allegations of crime, along with how the facility is being operated and if there are issues with the management of the facility that can be improved.
Eby said that both the municipality and Coast Mental Health have long raised issues about the building itself being inadequate for the task, but that the concerns being raised by residents go “well above” that.
“Allegation of criminal activity among staff, criminal activity affecting the safety of tenants that was not responded to properly — these were new allegations that were on social media. They were given additional support by the mayor of Maple Ridge, so I immediately called a review,” Eby said.
Eby described the complaints as “out of character” for Coast Mental Health, an organization he said has plenty of experience operating housing for people with complex mental health and addictions issues.
But he said he would not pre-judge the report.
“This review will hopefully clarify those questions for the mayor, for the tenants and others, in terms if there is any opportunity to do things better and if there are serious allegations of wrongdoing that are substantiated, ultimately for law enforcement,” he said.
But the fact that the issue didn’t land on the province’s radar until a social media post was widely circulated is troubling to some residents and supporters.
Housing advocate Diedra Lucas penned the Facebook post that prompted the province to act: a list of people whom she says died in the complex.
“I just got tired of it happening,” she said.
“People come here and are promised they’ll get the tools they need to more forward in life, get out of the situation they’re in, and they just come to a place that’s worse.”
Lucas said promised services like nurses and counsellors never materialized, and that understaffed workers are overwhelmed by problems at the facility.
“I think it’s really sad (that it took the post to get action) because this has been going on for a really long time,” she said.
Darrell Burnham, CEO of Coast Mental Health, said he welcomed the review, and was pleased B.C. Housing wasn’t going to jump to conclusions but was “going to actually do a study and actually understand it.”
“We look at safety as the primary concern for any of our facilities, and so if we have a concern that raises a worry that any of our tenants are in an unsafe situation, we will intervene with that and certainly we have evicted people who are not able to respond to that,” he said.
“We’re pleased and we’ll be working with whoever the investigator is.”
Eby said given the gravity of the allegations, he has instructed officials to expedite the review, but could not provide a timeline on when it would be completed.
In the interim, a new replacement housing complex is under construction for residents and is slated for completion next fall.