'I will not go out back': Moncton landlord worried about tenant safety

Peter LeBlanc needs to find a new tenant for his downtown Moncton apartment building.

The landlord said the vacancy is the result of a current tenant no longer feeling like it’s safe place to live.

Half of the residents in the 12-unit building at High and Park streets have complained to the property owner about drug use, fighting, public urination, damaged vehicles, and even prostitution in the back parking lot.

LeBlanc, who has owned the property for 30 years, had to re-install a fence Wednesday night to keep people from loitering and engaging in criminal activity behind the building.

“Early December, I took the fence down. Within the first 24-hours the superintendent had eight or nine different groups of people and had to ask them to get off the lot,” said LeBLanc.

He’s witnessed drug use all around his property and people blocking the main entrance of the building.

“[People] getting high, just trying to stay warm. I've got a baby barn, there's a corner, same thing there. They hang out there. They do their drugs,” said LeBlanc.

A downtown Moncton apartment building is pictured on Dec. 28, 2023.Tenant Michelle Donnelly said she's too scared to go outside without a companion.

“For the last two years I don't think I've gone and taken my garbage out myself because I'm too afraid to go out back. I have a son who comes to visit me. He takes my garbage out for me. I will not go out back,” said Donnelly.

The building is just a few doors down from the Harvest House homeless shelter.

Managing director Leon Baker said he's aware of the issue and is working with LeBlanc. However, he said the people causing problems on the corner are not all Harvest House clients.

“We do monitor the area on a continual basis, ask people to move along,” said Baker.

“It's not that we come around from time to time, it's part of our regular routine throughout the day, throughout the evenings. We monitor not only our own property, but the property of the people around us.”

LeBlanc is happy Harvest House is cooperating and he’s sympathetic toward the plight of Moncton’s homeless, but said he needs to make sure his tenants feel safe.

He reached out to the city around three weeks ago with his concerns and said he was put in touch with a member of the Codiac Regional RCMP.

City of Moncton spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc said they cannot discuss active by-law enforcement files, but drug use or other illegal activity should be directed to the police for appropriate handling.

“Residents should feel safe on their property,” said Isabelle LeBlanc in an email to CTV News.

Sgt. Sébastien Decaens of the Codiac Regional RCMP said if a tenant witnesses any criminal act they should immediately call police, because if they reach out to a landlord first it may be too late.

“The issue that we have sometimes is the tenants are not calling. So we don’t have a witness to the offence. When we get called it’s later and they’re gone,” said Decaens.

Donnelly said overdoses on or near the property are commonplace.

“The sirens... police, ambulance, fire trucks are constant. All day. All night. There is no stop,” said Donnelly.

Peter LeBlanc said he’d like to see the neighbourhood cleaned up. He’d also like to see a new tenant move in.

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