Susan Clairmont: Hamilton’s Parkdale Landing was to provide safer supportive housing — but then a murder happened
The problem isn't so much the folks who live at Parkdale Landing.
It's those who don't.
It's the friends and couch-surfers and mere acquaintances who visit the supported-living apartment building who cause most of the trouble.
Some bring drugs to sell door to door at the Melvin Avenue building, which houses tenants with complex addiction and mental-health issues.
With the drugs can come violence and tragedy. Even a murder.
Our No. 1 struggle is guests and guest management," says program supervisor Zachary Rowley.
Parkdale Landing is owned and operated by Indwell, a nearly 50-year-old Christian-based Hamilton non-profit.
It has 11 locations in Hamilton, with another four buildings to open over the next four months, bringing the total number of people housed to 550.
Across southern Ontario, Indwell provides affordable supportive housing in six communities. It received capital funding from all three levels of government and its operating budget is made up of tenant rents and fees, operating grants from the Ministry of Health, and donations.
Indwell is a word from scripture which means to inhabit," often used in reference to a holy spirit.
One Parkdale tenant with a big heart was Michel Pilon. One friend" was his buddy from the streets, George Opassinis.
Michel Pilon was a trusting soul who helped people as much as he could," Justice Toni Skarica said in his courtroom a few months ago. He helped George Opassinis. George paid Michel back by killing him."
Opassinis stayed in Michel's bachelor apartment for weeks. They did drugs together.
A jury found Opassinis guilty of second-degree murder. He is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 15 years.
The Crown theorized Michel tried to evict his guest so Opassinis strangled him, hog-tied him in his bathroom and hid his body there for hours. He was discovered by a drug dealer who did not live at Parkdale on the morning of Nov. 30, 2018.
Michel, 53, used a wheelchair, weighed 97 pounds and had AIDS.
The defence suggested another suspect was responsible, a different drug dealer who frequently visited Parkdale. Opassinis testified he was in a deep, drug-induced sleep while that dealer killed Michel over a debt.
Security cameras inside Parkdale captured hours of video of both dealers hanging out in apartments on Michel's floor, going in and out of units at all hours. The trial heard they were selling drugs and collecting debt.
Michel's murder was big news. Made bigger by the fact Parkdale Landing, considered the gold standard in enhanced supportive living, had opened its doors just two months earlier.
Indwell heralded the new building as a safer place for those on the cusp of homelessness.
Homelessness is the scourge of Hamilton. Poverty, mental illness, drug addiction, the opioid crisis and soaring housing prices have converged, leading to overflowing shelters and controversial tent encampments.
Those who are unhoused are living without dignity, without basic necessities. Some are dying.
Parkdale, with 57 furnished bachelor and one-bedroom units, is one of the few options that provides housing to the city's most despondent, some of whom move in directly from encampments.
In other communities where Indwell hopes to build new projects, Michel's murder has inspired a heightened state of NIMBY-ism. Some are afraid Indwell homes are dangerous.
Indwell is neither naive to nor cavalier about the challenges it faces.
Graham Cubitt, director of projects and development, admits mistakes have been made at Parkdale.
Indwell will not build another high-needs facility as large as Parkdale Landing again, he says.
Since it opened in September 2018 through to Feb. 24, 2022, police have been called to Parkdale Landing 1,261 times - an average of nearly once a day - according to a freedom-of-information request made to Hamilton Police Service. The most frequent call is an ambulance-advised event" involving a medical issue.
During that time, there were 103 criminal charges laid, the most common being failing to comply with probation.
Since Parkdale opened, there have been seven deaths at the building: two suicides, two overdoses, one natural cause, one was Michel Pilon's murder, and one is listed as other cause" though police say it is a suspected overdose.
Next door to Parkdale Landing, there is McQuesten Lofts, another Indwell building. It opened in 2020 with 50 spaces, serving seven fewer and less-needy tenants than Parkdale.
Police data shows from Dec. 1, 2020, to Feb. 24, 2022, there were 302 calls to that address. Like Parkdale, the most frequent were for an ambulance-advised event."
During that time, 21 criminal charges were laid, with failing to comply with probation being the most common.
There have been no deaths at McQuesten.
I'm sorry I look like this. But my schizophrenia is acting up."
He is huddled outside the front door of Parkdale Landing. His clothes are dirty. He is missing teeth. He clutches a fistful of cigarettes.
It is unclear who he is or what he is doing here.
This modern, streamlined building with the distinctive colourful window frames is where some of Hamilton's greatest social challenges intersect.
It is staffed around the clock, offers one meal a day to tenants and has a pharmacy on-site.
Parkdale's tenants get a level of enhanced support" more intense than at most other Indwell sites in Hamilton. (The only other similar facility is Indwell's Strathearne Suites on Strathearne Avenue near Barton Street, which supports 39 tenants.) There are nurses, psychiatric social-support workers, addiction experts and housing specialists working here. Staff from the Shelter Health Network arrive weekly to provide care.
Nearly all tenants receive benefits from the Ontario Disability Support Program. Most have addiction issues.
There are hundreds of people on Parkdale's waiting list.
Michel was one of Parkdale Landing's inaugural tenants.
His sister told Justice Skarica he was an innocent." A kind and trusting soul who was odd" and quirky," had difficulty learning and was often bullied.
At 15, Michel left his troubled home to live on the streets of Toronto. He was in and out of jail and addicted to crystal meth and crack cocaine.
The last thing Opassinis said before being led from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence was: He was my best friend and he was for 26 years."
Michel had barely settled into his tiny, clean, third-floor Parkdale apartment when Opassinis moved in with him.
Opassinis is addicted to drugs, has a violent criminal record, and likely has schizophrenia, according to trial evidence.
Michel wanted to help Opassinis.
It is a phenomenon Indwell staff know well.
Sometimes tenants have dangerously misplaced good intentions," says Cubitt.
A culture of drug dealing doesn't align with our values. We value dignity, love and hope."
But where there are folks struggling with drug addiction, there are bound to be drug dealers. The problem is worse at Parkdale Landing than any other Indwell building.
The opioid crisis has become very, very entrenched in our community," says Cubitt, and by extension, at Parkdale.
Cubitt says prior to Parkdale's opening, the organization had not seen that kind of hardened dealing, door to door, in any of our buildings. That predatory nature of dealing - that's new for us."
Trying to control the flow of visitors presents a dilemma.
It's not really allowed for people to just couch-surf," says Cubitt.
Yet, tenants have a right to have guests. Since many tenants have experienced homelessness, they are quick to help others who need a place to stay. That was the case with Michel and Opassinis.
Since Michel's murder, Indwell staff have worked to remind tenants that they chose supported living, and to help them figure out who is in their life and why.'"
We are working on helping tenants learn how to say no,'" Cubitt says. We've learned it's really important for people who are coming out of homelessness to have a small apartment, because it allows them to say no to guests."
Fostering a rapport" with tenants is likely the best way to manage visitors in the building, Cubitt says.
Indwell staff do weekly checks on tenants in their units.
In fact, counsellor Zachary Rowley and a colleague went to Michel's door the day before his body was discovered. Opassinis met them there, blocked their view of the apartment and told them Michel was out.
Trial evidence showed Michel was already dead, his body tied in the bathroom.
That fact haunts Indwell staff.
After Michel's murder, Indwell brought in overnight security guards at Parkdale. And they are working with tenants to implement a policy requiring guests to be registered, with no guests allowed in after 11 p.m.
We can't ban people very easily," says Cubitt. People trespassing is not an emergency for police. It is not simple to get a trespass order enforced."
Meanwhile, drug dealers continue to find ways into Parkdale.
Back doors get used. People prop doors open. People are sneaking their friends in to deal drugs."
Turnover at Parkdale Landing is low. The only way for Indwell to increase space for prospective tenants is to build new apartments.
When McQuesten opened next door, about 10 people moved to the new building, which is intended for those able to live more independently.
David Ross is one of those who moved. He did so, he says, because he didn't feel safe at Parkdale.
I wanted a place where people with drug addiction problems and mental illness can live happy and more productive lives," he says. There was a murder. There were overdose deaths from heroin. There were fights. There was a suicide."
I wanted to keep things quiet. Low key."
Ross, 44, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 18. He lived with his parents well into adulthood, going to work and paying them rent. But when they sold their home, he says he lived in a psychiatric hospital for four months and then moved to a group home.
The group home was awful," he says. A tiny little bedroom for two people. I didn't want to live with 20 other men."
In October 2018, after four years on an Indwell waiting list, he became one of the first residents to move into Parkdale. He lived in a very nice" bachelor apartment across the hall from Michel.
I wanted somewhere independent, yet supervised," says Ross, who is on ODSP. It seemed like the best place to move to ... I wanted a quiet, safe environment."
Pre-pandemic, Ross volunteered at a food bank. He enjoys reading Stephen King novels.
Ross says while he meets Parkdale's criteria because he has a mental illness, he doesn't drink and is not a drug user, apart from using a lot of cannabis" in his youth.
The amount of drug use in the building concerned Ross. People constantly tried to sell him drugs, he says.
People were always going door to door, knocking on the door and shouting about drugs. There were some really bad times there."
He says visitors caused problems at Parkdale. They're homeless and they're crashing at their friend's house."
Go out at the wrong time of day and you'd be assaulted for $5 in your pocket. If I went outside for a cigarette, I wouldn't feel safe."
He felt that way despite police being at Parkdale on an almost daily basis, he says.
Ross didn't witness anything the night of Michel's murder. When he opened his door the next morning, there were police officers in the hall. When he learned what happened, he says he felt disturbed, not safe."
Ross never really knew Michel, but he was friends with another tenant who died of a drug overdose at Parkdale.
I didn't belong at Parkdale," Ross says. They lump mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction together. That's just stupid. It's not working."
In February, Ross moved into a one-bedroom unit at McQuesten.
It too has problems, he says. But overall, there is less noise and chaos."
Indwell is constantly learning and evolving," says Cubitt. It has been self-reflective" on what it has learned from Michel's murder.
We know there is always the opportunity to improve."
Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com