London 'Start cleaning up your buildings': Tenant calls for better safety and security at one of city’s newest public housing buildings 122 Baseline Rd. W., London, Ont.
, seen on June 19, 2024. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London) Share It opened just a little more than two years ago with a goal of providing safe and affordable housing for those in need. Now some tenants at 122 Baseline Rd.
W., a public housing apartment, say their building has become overrun by crime and drugs. “Well in my 19 months [living here], we’ve had a murder, numerous stabbings inside and outside the building.
Too many times for police calls. Too many times I’ve seen the ROPE (Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement) squad here,” said tenant Gerry Anderson. On a tour through the building, Anderson pointed out urine and feces in stairwells, graffiti on walls and doors, holes in drywall, cockroaches in garbage rooms, broken locks on doors, easy access through busted entryways, and in one corner of the property, dozens of discarded needles.
“Look at it all,” he exclaimed. “Syringe, syringe, all the tabs.” Anderson said this past April, he was jumped and stabbed in the head while out having a smoke, pointing to two staples in the back of his skull where the blade went through.
122 Baseline Rd. W., tenant Gerry Anderson, seen on June 19, 2024, stands in a doorway that has been compromised.
(Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London) The final straw, he said, was this past Sunday when he stepped on a used ne.