Long after the fences and barricades come down, residents in some Calgary neighbourhoods who’ve watched a provincial task force swoop in to shutter notorious drug houses say the crime fighting tactic isn’t always a silver bullet.
Amid a week that saw the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit close two Calgary homes with a checkered history of criminal activity, residents who live near houses that had previously been served with short-term closure orders have seen a variety of outcomes, from a complete transformation to an unwelcome return to business as usual.
And through all the stories of drugs, prostitution, sleepless nights, and surprise visits to the area from tactical units, one common denominator rings through: the fact that in each case it took the community banding together to restore peace to the community.
“There were so many calls (to SCAN),” said Ken Chilton, who along with neighbours worked to shutter a raucous house in Coventry Hills in January 2017. “All of us were trying to get together to say ‘hey, what can we do?’ ”
Andrew Strack and his wife Sherry told a similar story of working with their neighbours to shut down a problem property in Winston Heights, the same month of the Coventry Hills closure.
“A lot of the neighbourhood went to (a meeting with SCAN),” said Strack, adding the agency eventually condemned the house. “After years of the police working on this, and failing and getting nothing done, it was SCAN that finally got something done within months. They found a way to solve the problem properly.”
Within the last week, the unit raided two drug dens in Calgary. One, located in Southview, was shuttered for the second time since last fall, while another house in Forest Lawn was one of the worst the province had seen , investigators said.
The houses were the second and third the SCAN unit had shut down this year in the city. Since 2015, they’ve closed 18 in Calgary alone.
Since the unit’s inception in 2008, 5,500 properties have been investigated and nearly 80 community safety orders have been issued.
“I could easily say 100 per cent of them are drug-related,” said SCAN Insp. Mike Letourneau. “Out of the … orders, maybe there’s four or five that I can count on that we’ve gotten back twice for.”
In most cases, the province seeks community safety orders to board up the homes often for 90 days before homeowners are often allowed to retake possession of the property.
For some of the neighbours, the drug dens close up; users move on, and homeowners learn their lesson — much to the pleasure of those around the home. But that’s not how it goes for every neighbourhood.
5106 Erin Place S.E.
Shuttered by SCAN on April 17, 2018, the house at 5106 Erin Pl. was noted as having a daily parade of drug users, prostitutes and other unwelcome visitors at the weathered bungalow.
Now, a year-and-a-half later, residents in the neighbourhood say the residence again seems to be teeming with outlaw activity plaguing the otherwise peaceful block.
“There’s hookers that come in and out of the house all the time. They have drug addicts sitting on the street corner or falling out the door,” said Brandi Proctor, who lives with her husband and two kids in a nearby house. “My little boys know what a hooker looks like. They know what needles look like. I’m scared when they walk home from school because they have to walk past that house.
“The police aren’t really doing anything. They say to keep calling bylaw, keep calling SCAN. Calling is not doing anything and it’s not stopping them either. I don’t know what else there is to do.”
5509 Maddock Dr. N.E.
Known as the site of the grisly 2017 murder of 15-year-old Leslie Sunwalk, 5509 Maddock Dr. N.E. was shuttered last April amid reports of drug activity and disturbances. While the 90-day ban on the property was lifted in April, residents say the house has remained unoccupied, and they are cautiously optimistic about its future.
“They’re hasn’t been any sign (the homeowner) is opening the house,” said John Jirikowic, who is a part of the area’s block watch program that banded together to get SCAN involved and lives near the property. “I don’t know whether we broke his spirit.
“I have to say there’s just this kind of this (dark cloud) over the neighbourhood. It’s because the history of the place. We’re just waiting — (the homeowner) does not seem reformed, he just seems frustrated.”
Jirikowic said the whole process, at times, felt like they were talking two steps forward and one step back.
“It’s progress by inches and you’re always worried everything you worked for is going to slip away,” he said, adding it took five years to get the house shuttered.
71 Coventry Rd. N.E.
A kidnapping and extortion at a Coventry Hills house known for its raucous parties was the last straw before officials shuttered the home at 71 Coventry Rd. N.E. in January 2017, a neighbour said.
Ken Chilton, who has lived in his home nearby the house for 19 years, said since the house was shuttered, things have been fairly quiet in the area.
“It was bad — there was cars coming in and out of here all the time, drug deals,” he said. “You can see a lot more kind of activity. Not suggesting it’s another drug house, but there’s more people coming over … (but) it has been better.”
625 27 Ave N.E.
Once a community blight, there is nothing left of a former SCAN shutdown house at 625 27 Ave. N.E. Multiple search warrants had been executed on the home where stolen guns, large quantities of fentanyl, and more than $150,000 were seized in 2017.
Now, new owners have taken over and rebuilt, erecting a duplex where the house once stood.
“We thought it was just a neat old guy in this house,” said Andrew Strack. “Six months later … (was when) we really realized just how bad it was as a drug house.”
Sherry Strack said the house was an eyesore in the community.
“The roof had a tarp over it, you could see where the roof was sagging in. The yard was always in disarray,” she said. “There were a few neighbours that were very integral (in getting it shut down).”
On Twitter: @zjlaing
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
