St. John’s families decry housing transfer process, as they deal with stressful living conditions

When criminal charges were laid against Jacinda McCormack’s neighbour, she was sure the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation would move her and her family. 

After all, McCormack said, an employee with the government agency told her an escalating conflict with her neighbour wasn’t cause for a transfer to a different unit — unless it turned criminal.

“They (NLHC) shouldn’t be making promises that they are not holding up,” McCormack said in a recent interview at her housing unit on Eric Street.

“It’s absolutely terrible what they’re doing to us. We’re not asking for much. A transfer is all we’re asking for, you wouldn’t think that they would let things get so far and not move us, you know?”

McCormack has been asking for a transfer since 2021. After CBC News began inquiring with the NLHC about rules surrounding transfers when criminal charges are in play, McCormack received notice that she’s been added to a transfer list. 

McCormack has three children, including an eight-month-old daughter. She began living at the family unit in 2017, and had no issues for years. 

The problems started in 2021, she said, when she got in a relationship with her neighbour’s ex-boyfriend.

Documents provided by McCormack show she had called police four times before the fractious  situation reached its peak this May.

“[My neighbour] came into my home and tried to assault me. I then had to physically push her out of my home. Then she approached me again and hit me in the face and threatened to knock all my windows out and my cameras,” said McCormack.

“I had a bunch of stuff on the side of my property and she threw it all on the ground.”

Charges laid; request denied

Court records show the neighbour was charged with assault, mischief by interfering with use of property, and uttering threats to damage or destroy property. No pleas have been entered to date. 

McCormack said she sent police and court documents to the NLHC, as well as video and audio surveillance of the incidents. 

“They told me that if things escalate, escalate and charges were laid that they would be able to move me and give me the transfer,” she said.

Despite that, McCormack said her request for a transfer was again denied. She said she was told NLHC doesn’t move people over social issues. 

The next month, McCormack called police on the relative of the neighbour who was first charged. Police arrested the second woman for assaulting two police officers and damaging police property. 

After nearly three years of asking, McCormack was told last week her most recent application was approved. She’s been added to the transfer list — and it’s a long one.

NLHC said that, as of July 7, there were 196 people province-wide on the wait list for a transfer. The majority of them — 135 — are in the Avalon region. 

According to the housing corporation, the estimated wait time varies, as it is dependent on both the availability of units and the applicant’s specific requirements.

Those include the location, number of bedrooms required, and accessibility requirements.

Needles on the ground, violence in the streets

A few kilometres away, there are more concerns about a lack of options to move away from a difficult situation.

Maurice Doyle and Ashley Conte would welcome a spot on the list, if it meant the possibility of leaving Livingstone Street in downtown St. John’s. 

The couple and their three-year-old son have lived in the unit for a year and a half. They submitted doctors’ notes and medical records to NLHC, they said, but their requests for a transfer to a different housing unit have been denied. 

“I’m scared to leave my home,” Conte said in a recent interview. “We shouldn’t have to be scared to leave our home. Nobody should.”

Doyle said he’s constantly searching the grass in the local park and on the sidewalk for used needles and drug paraphernalia. He often walks his son to daycare past people using drugs in plain sight. 

“My son’s only three. He’s not going to know what the difference is between a needle [or a toy]. And keep our eye on him, obviously, but if he falls and poked himself, what happens then?”

Doyle acknowledges that criminal activity and drug use happens everywhere — but he said Livingstone Street is just too dangerous. 

As he speaks, a pair of Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers on police horses pass by.

“That’s very common. It’s very, very common, but it still don’t fix the problem,” Doyle said, pointing at the police officers.

“It’s just bad, very bad down there. It’s needles and it’s just all the trouble around here.”

Doyle said not enough is done to help drug users in the area, and argues that officials do not put as much care and attention into Livingstone Street and surrounding area as it does to other housing neighbourhoods, where there are community centres and services for children. 

Police frequently called to area

Numbers provided by the City of St. John’s through access to information back up Doyle and Conte’s experiences. From January 2022 to now, there were dozens of calls to the city’s 311 hotline to report discarded needles in the area, including in Tessier Park, where Doyle brings his toddler. 

There were 142 calls for service to Livingstone Street alone in the first seven months of this year, according to data obtained from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, also through access to information.

But concerns about crime don’t automatically make tenants eligible to move, according to rules set out by the NLHC.

CBC News requested an interview with the minister responsible for housing, Paul Pike, but he declined.

However, a spokesperson from NLHC said tenants must be within the unit for a year or more, and there must be “a legitimate reason for a transfer.”

Those reasons include if a tenant is a victim of violence, is under housed, has a disability, or extreme social problems — assessed by a social worker. Employment and education are also considerations. 

Back on Eric Street, McCormack settles into a new waiting game — how long until she’s off the list, and into a new house.

“This doesn’t even feel like our home anymore. It just, we’re stuck,” McCormack said. 

“We can’t do anything. It’s not a way to live at all.”

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