Residents and business owners in Montreal’s Chinatown neighbourhood are speaking out again about security concerns, this time pointing to a residential building that they believe is the focal point for illegal drug use and prostitution in the area.
The building is a rooming house on Clarke Street next to Brady Lane, the site notorious in the neighbourhood for alleged illegal drug activity, prostitution and violence.
Gilbert Wong remembers the first time he visited the rooming house in May to see a relative.
“It was horrifying,” he told Global News not far from the place. “It’s kind of unbelievable that there would be people living there.”
Global News has agreed to conceal the identity of that person because they’re afraid of reprisals for speaking out.
Wong, who lives in Toronto, worries for his relative’s safety and says the situation has gotten worse in the last four months.
“That was the reason I came back here to check on the situation,” he said.
Global News went inside the three-storey rooming house Tuesday and saw severe damage to walls, graffiti, uncleanliness and lack of security. There was a smell of urine. In the shared kitchen area on the first floor was a dirty stove on top of which were several cooking utensils. Two common bathrooms, to which there were no doors, had filthy bathtubs, holes in the ceiling and in one, no lights.
These are conditions which Wong said he believes make his relative and other tenants, vulnerable — “you know, being mugged or being attacked for drug money or for whatever.”
Chinatown merchants and area residents are also troubled by what they say goes on inside.
“It’s become a drug pusher’s den,” said Bill Wong (no relation), director general of the Montreal Chinatown Development Council.
Bryant Chang, a Chinese Association of Montreal vice-president, said the same thing.
“I can confirm to you that in the last three months, there have been two deaths in that building, through overdose,” he claimed.
Wednesday three members of the city’s mobile mediation and social intervention team (ÉMMIS), who were not authorized to speak to media, confirmed to Global News that there have been overdose deaths in that building in recent months.
Another tenant, who also spoke to Global News on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, claims as well that there is frequent sale and use of drugs in the building, as well as prostitution and fights.
Every merchant and resident over the last week who has voiced concern about the security situation, claims the Clarke Street rooming house is the centre for the drug and security problems on Brady Lane — a problem which Global News reported on recently.
“Furthermore,” Chang claimed, “the worst thing is the landlord is missing in action.”
The same two tenants who do not want to be identified also say that nobody has collected rent from them for the last six months.
Global News tried tracking down the building owner, who resided at residence on Sherbrooke Street. A person at the high-end building, who identified himself as the owner’s brother-in-law, said the person was out of town on Wednesday and not reachable.
The brother-in-law also said the owner had a main residence in Tennessee. He told Global News when told it was urgent that we speak with him for our story, that he’d pass along our message.
As of Thursday afternoon, there had been no contact made.
The city said that an inspection process has been underway since June this year but did not give details. A spokesperson also said that they have sent notices to the landlord, but she did not say if he’s responded.
There was an information session in Chinatown on Wednesday evening with city representatives and police, where residents and businesspeople say they hope to get some answers to the rooming house problem and other safety problems in the neighbourhood.