Mess remains after suspected drug den shut down in Whitehorse

A notorious Whitehorse house neighbours say was a drug den is now a boarded-up shack after it was shut down last week, but neighbourhood residents say there's still a major mess to clean up inside and outside the house.

Trash litters the yard around 810 Wheeler St., which has been boarded up since Yukon justice officials evicted the tenants on July 1. Open green plastic bags and rusty cars full of garbage litter in the yard.

Officials in charge of the territory's Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act, the legislation that allowed the eviction, said the house's interior looks even worse.

"I've heard from some SCAN investigators that there's about 2,000 syringes and it's completely trashed inside," said neighbourhood resident Roxanne Livingstone, a member of the Downtown Residents' Association.

SCAN officials said they are piecing together a clean-up plan for 810 Wheeler St. In the meantime, they urge people not to try to pick up any of the garbage scattered around the house.

The house at 810 Wheeler St. has long been a source of complaints from neighbours, who said it was long known as a place where people could buy and sell drugs. The house is next to a park.

Livingstone and other downtown residents applauded the relatively new SCAN law for making it possible to have the house's tenants evicted.

Under the legislation, which was passed in May 2006, the public can file complaints about a property where they believe there is continuing criminal activity, such as drug dealing, prostitution and bootlegging.

SCAN investigators look into the complaint, and tenants can be served eviction notices if they are engaged in criminal behaviour at that property.

Livingstone said the owner of the house, who now lives in Edmonton, issued an eviction notice to the tenants, which include the owner's brother. SCAN officials helped carry out the eviction. Police arrested nine people after they failed to meet the July 1 eviction deadline.