Penny Drive residents want problem tenants evicted

Some residents living inOttawa Community Housing complexes on Penny Drive, where there has been a spike inshootingsand gang activity, want their landlord to do more to force problem tenantsout of the neighbourhood.

"The housing has to check the people they put in the houses because it seems like it's repeating. They're putting thesame kinds of people in the same housesdrug dealers, crack heads that are using hard drugs,"said resident Anita Wade.

"We are not rich here. We are surviving. We are people that are outside, working hard. Weare nurses in here. We are people who clean houses. We are painters that liveinthose projects. We are people who take care of those people who are supposed to take care of us."

Wali Farah, who has worked as a mentor with youth in the neighbourhood, calledOttawa Community Housing an absentee landlord.

"If you are not contributing to the communityand you are contributing death and destruction anddamage to the communityand to these young people, the Ottawa (Community)Housing Corporation has a responsibility to take care of this," he said."Deal with them. Get them out."

• Under the Gun:Ottawa gangs and the rising number of shootings
• LISTEN | Stu Mills speaks to Penny Drive residents on Ottawa Morning
• WATCH | Steve Fischer's report on Banff-Ledburyon CBC News beginning at 5 p.m.

But Bay ward councillor Mark Taylor told CBC News that, in many cases,there is little that can be done unless members of the community speak out.

"Ottawa Community Housing is like any landlord, shackled to some degree by the Landlord and Tenant Act. You can't just randomly evict somebody without justification," he said.

"We know there are some problem addresses. Our plan is to drill into those addresses."

Ottawa Community Housing told CBC News that it needs evidence of illegal activity to evict tenants.

Taylor added that"those addresses sometimes act as magnets to pull other people in," but that problems are not necessarily reported in some neighbourhoods.

"There isn'tthat community sense of ownership that if they see something, they'll say something," he said.

"That makes it ripe for people to come in and do bad things because they know nobody is going to call and report us. We have to change that paradigmas well."

Taylor said the challenge is compounded by the fact that, in some cases, tenants can be victims of home takeovers.

"It's not an easy answer. There's no answer that's as simple as evict them all, arrest them all," he said. "If it was that simple, it would have been done years ago."

Banff-Ledburygang strategy holding strong

Residents inBanff-Ledburyin south Ottawa were intimidated byviolence, drug trade and gang activitya decade ago but its reputation as the city's most dangerousneighbourhood has faded away.

There werea recordhigh49 shootings in Ottawa last year but none inBanff-Ledbury.

Homework club for youth at theBanffCommunity House is one of more than a dozenprograms aimed at keeping children in the neighbourhood busyand out of trouble.

Many residents creditthe No Communities Left Behind programwith driving outthe notoriousLedburyBanffCrips gang.

The program bringstogether police, health and social workers,community leaders andmembers of the different ethnic groups.

It hasexpanded to other social housing communities the south Ottawa, andeach month they get togetherto compare notes.

Still, theneighbourhoodis transientwith people moving in and out constantly, meaning theprogram mustevolve with it torecruit new members with new ideas.

Community leaders said they know there is alwaysanother gang ready to move in if there's anopening.