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In addition to the new apartment buildings being renovated or repurposed in both Montague and Charlottetown, the government’s Housing First initiative is also being pushed into currently existing government housing.
The Park Royal Court residences have for a long time been used to provide housing for seniors with a low income, but as of recently, they are also being used to provide housing for troubled Outreach Center clients.
As I have discussed in another article before, under Housing First the homeless people being provided housing are not required to be sober or attend treatment before housing is provided. The idea is that by providing housing first, this sets up the necessary foundation for treatment to come later.
Just like the Montague pilot for Housing First has led to a spike in crime and neighborhood residents being terrorized, so is the same thing happening at Park Royal Court.
Having spoken to residents in the building, I can confirm that there is a particular resident in the building that by all accounts seems to have severe mental health issues. This resident has been in jail before, has assaulted residents and has launched more verbal threats than any reasonable person can count. The police have been called numerous times but the best they seem to be able to do is to advise the residents to stay clear of him.
Again, these types of cases seem to be a political hot potato. The police say this is a health issue, health says this is a social services issue and social services points back to a police issue with nobody in government wanting to take responsibility for public safety.
The next troubling aspect is the Outreach Center clients being moved into the building. There seems to be several of them over at Park Royal Court currently. If this was truly a necessary step in their recovery process after detoxing and being sober, I think most people would support the initiative, but the truth is they have brought numerous problems to the building since they started moving in. Fights, open drug use, harassment and attempted break-ins into units are just some of the issues seniors in the building are confronted with.
The sign that is featured to the right was just recently posted in the building and confirms that what I am saying is true. While I appreciate that there does seem to be some people at the Housing Department that are attempting to do their job, the fact this sign even has to go up is a serious indictment of our society and on the people responsible for providing safety.
