The problems aren’t buried deep in Toronto public housing

Blades, drugs, bullets and even guns were found stashed in common areas around Toronto’s community housing units — readily accessible to anyone who knew where to look.

A two-day sweep of Toronto Community Housing (TCH) buildings by Toronto police netted a disturbing and notable collection of weapons and contraband. The bounty underlines the stark truth that, yes, violent crime in prevalent in the community.

One weapon found during the sweep on Feb. 21 and 22, was a shotgun found hidden in the ceiling tiles of a building where a 15-year-old boy was found shot dead earlier this month.

The Toronto Star reports:

And this was just in publicly accessible areas of community housing complexes. A sock filled with shotgun shells hidden in the laundry room, drugs hidden in a storage closet.

Imagine what would happen if police kicked in apartment doors.

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Look, the majority of community housing tenants are law-abiding citizens who deserve respect and privacy.

They also deserve security. And that is something they are not getting at the moment.

Since late January, three young teens have been killed in gun violence in or near community housing units. A handful of other shootings have been reported, and most likely some unreported incidents have taken place as well.

It is time to acknowledge that the problem begins at home.

TCH head Gene Jones has said that the units are safe. Earlier this month he told CBC News that much of the gun violence that occurs near public housing is caused by people from the outside.

That may be, but those people don't end up there by accident. How many are drawn there by rival trouble makers?

That is believed to be the case in the most notorious instance of gun violence in recent memory - the mass shooting at a Danzig Street housing unit that left two innocent bystanders dead, and more than a dozen other people injured.

Jones was new to the TCH following the Danzig shooting last year, and said at the time he would do more to understand what causes the prevalence of violence in public housing.

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It is important to note that the searches took place with full cooperation of Toronto Community Housing.

“It is troubling that by hiding weapons and drugs in such areas, people engaged in criminal activities have put the safety of all residents and staff at risk,” the agency stated. “We trust that future searches will bring similar results and lead to arrests.”

Such searches can happen again, and they should.

One could surmise that the housing search was, at least in part, thanks to Jones' leadership and in part thanks to a police force that knows tangible improvements are needed.

Here we are, clearing weapons out of public areas of public housing.

There are causes of violence there that should be rooted out as well.