Drug den closure raises concerns
Posted Jun 4, 2012 05:29:26 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The provincial government’s move to shut down a suspected drug den in downtown Dartmouth has raised questions about the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act.
An anti-poverty advocate is raising concerns about legal language and what actions can be taken against a person who has not been convicted of a crime.
“I’m really concerned that an Act like this has so much power where there are automatic investigations that are launched just based on an anonymous complaint,” said Rene Ross.
The executive director at Stepping Stone, a non-profit organization that supports former and current sex workers, says as a mother she wouldn’t want to live next to crack house. But Ross said there is the potential for innocent people to find themselves evicted under the Act.
“Instead of just evicting the person who is engaged in criminal activity, the whole family unit can be evicted,” she said.
In late May, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ordered three properties on Victoria Road to be vacated after Halifax Regional Police responded to more than 700 complaints of illegal activity at the properties over the last four years. Police had responded to drug trafficking and prostitution complaints at 6 Victoria Rd., 14 Victoria Rd. and 14A Victoria Rd.
The Department of Justice said the Act is working as it should.
“The goal of the program is to give citizens and community members the tools to fight crime in their neighbourhood,” Spokesperson Dan Harrison told News 95.7.
He said the houses are not safe and closing the properties is the only way to break the cycle.
“We work very carefully with social agencies to try to find alternate housing for people who are effected that who are innocents in this case,” he said. “We do our best to try to make sure there aren’t any negative effects on the people.”
Under the Act, vacated properties are closed for 90 days and the tenant leases are voided.
