How drug trafficking and shootings in Thunder Bay's social housing impact people living there

Clarence Bruyere looks both ways before entering the hallway of his building in Thunder Bay, Ont., a routine instilled in him after witnessing years of criminal activity. 

Bruyere has lived at Spence Court, a social housing building on Amelia Street West, for more than a decade. After being on the streets, he said he was fast-tracked through the wait list with support from those at Shelter House. 

The building has been in the spotlight after a recent daylight shooting on May 2. The incident prompted Coun. Kristen Oliver to call a Westfort ward meeting to hear the public's concerns, which revolved around escalating guns and gang violence and drug trafficking. 

What wasn't heard in that meeting was the voices of those who live at Spence Court.

Bruyere described groups of people who don't live there crowding the doors and slipping inside when tenants go in or out, screaming late at night and into the early morning, and people knocking on his door mistaking him for a drug dealer.

About four or five years ago, he said there was a dispute that resulted in a tenant, who was not involved, being shot in the leg.

This May's shooting has set residents further on edge. People used to spend time in the common room talking or watching TV, and would have their morning coffee in the garden outside. That doesn't happen much anymore.

"People are scared," said Bruyere. "That's the sad thing about it."

Spence Court, which contains 163 units, is owned by the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board (TBDSSAB), the service system manager for child care, social and affordable housing, and Ontario Works for the District of Thunder Bay.

Despite misconceptions at the Westfort ward meeting, it is not funded to provide mental health or addiction services, though tenant support workers do provide on-site support to those who request it, said TBDSSAB's chief administrative officer, Bill Bradica.

While Bradica acknowledges the safety concerns raised by residents, he said criminal activities are happening across the city, not just in social housing.

"It does seem that whenever there is an incident in one of our buildings or near one of our buildings, we are publicly called out as an organization. The same doesn't happen when it's a building owned by, say, a private landlord," Bradica said.

To Bradica, the shooting in May and the community's response to it has raised another issue: stereotypes around social housing and the people who live in it.

"I think we really have to consider that not everyone that's living in poverty is a criminal, and I think maybe there's a little bit of that mindset from certain people," he said.