The mass eviction of an apartment building on Brazil Street in St. John’s due to serious life-safety deficiencies is putting added strain on an already-tight emergency housing situation in the capital city.

A dozen or so rent-paying tenants have to find somewhere to go after the city shut down 91 Brazil Street – formerly known as Harbour View Apartments.

That’s a concern for Doug Pawson of End Homelessness St. John’s.

He says the building has been a serious concern for some time.

He says not only does it lack fire suppression, and fails to meet certain building code standards, but “there is a significant criminal element underpinning a lot of the residents in that building.”

Pawson says they’ve asked their frontline staff, as have other community groups, not to enter the building because of that risk. “What happens now to very vulnerable people, including a dozen or so who are paying rent?”

He says there are many more people who had been living there who were being “preyed-upon” by the criminal element which is operating out of that building.

Pawson is particularly worried that an encampment will emerge as the criminal activity that had been taking place there shifts elsewhere.

“But it won’t be what we saw a few years ago. It won’t be a protest encampment; it will be one that’s underpinned by a lot of violence and criminality. And I see a lot of potential for exploitation, trafficking of weapons, drugs and humans, and this has played out around the country.”