Public concerns about fentanyl’s proliferation across Canada have focused on overdose deaths and drug-related disorders. However, in addition to these pressing concerns, our recent research in Thunder Bay, Ont., unmasks additional impacts of Canada’s street-based drug economy.

Our work with 81 unhoused and street-involved community members reveals how big-city drug traffickers moving into smaller Canadian communities can wreak havoc. These out-of-town dealers often forcefully take over people’s homes so they can use them as a base to sell and produce drugs.

These groups and their home takeovers are a significant contributor to homelessness. Home takeovers force people out of housing and into homelessness, deepening cycles of poverty, housing instability and trauma.

Drug traffickers move in

In recent years, drug trafficking groups have distributed and manufactured fentanyl within and beyond Canada. Canada’s major urban centres, like Toronto and Edmonton, are now saturated with various criminal groups competing for a share of profits from the illicit drug trade.

Consequently, some groups have figured out that expanding or exporting their operations into smaller Canadian communities like Thunder Bay can be immensely profitable. Smaller cities often bring less competition, significantly drive up drug prices and provide these newly arrived dealers with greater anonymity from law enforcement.

Drug traffickers’ movements into smaller cities have raised serious public safety concerns, increasing local residents’ exposure to gun and drug-related violence.

Organized drug trafficking networks have significant resources but even so, moving into a new community to set up shop within the criminal underworld is no easy task.

One reason is that smaller communities often have some established players in the informal drug economy who may not be willing to step aside or share their client base with the newly arrived urban dealers.

That means entrepreneurial groups have adapted the long-standing practice of deploying home takeovers within drug economies. This works for their market expansion efforts..

‘Trap houses’

In a home takeover, out-of-town drug traffickers prey on low-income residents in social housing units and those who are otherwise marginalized. They forcefully take over their residence, and convert them into “trap houses.”

In other words, people’s residences become the base from which these groups produce and sell drugs and operate their business. These trap houses shield the drug traffickers from police and other authorities by reducing their need to sell drugs in public spaces.

Residents often have no choice but to accept these groups into their residence. Our research participants reported that out-of-town drug traffickers use a range of violent, coercive and manipulative tactics to gain initial access to their homes, including providing free drugs, forcing drug repayments, violence and extortion.

As one of our participants said, resisting a home takeover is almost impossible because drug traffickers can always find a way into their homes and will retaliate if they can’t get in:

“…they find their way in. There’s always a way in, and there’s always a weak point.”

Drug traffickers often prey on seniors or newly housed individuals, often within days or weeks of them moving in:

“When a homeless person gets pulled off the street, and they get given [a housing unit]… [the drug traffickers] reach out anywhere between six and eight weeks, and then it becomes a trap [house].”

Homelessness and housing insecurity

Residents whose homes have been taken over are left with little to no recourse.

Reporting takeovers to police or housing authorities is rarely an option. Many residents fear eviction, criminal charges or that dealers will retaliate with violence toward them or their family and friends. As one participant put it:

“If you call the cops, you’re probably dead.”

Given these fears, they see abandoning their home as the only way to escape this dire situation.

By not reporting to their housing authority or police, their homelessness and need for new housing remain undocumented. Critically, many former residents are often precluded from joining other housing support waiting lists.

Even after moving and somehow managing to get a new residence, several of our participants became homeless once again after their new place was also taken over.

Risk for homelessness

Home takeovers should be treated as a serious risk factor for homelessness.

Social housing providers can help by creating pathways for residents to report these takeovers safely, protecting them from legal consequences, and by moving people quickly into a new residence if needed, without penalizing them.

Police also play a critical role. They must treat residents experiencing home takeovers as victims, not as suspects, and build trust with the victimized individuals assuring them that they can be protected from retaliation if they speak up.

Addressing home takeovers is not only about limiting drug trafficking — it is also about protecting people’s homes, reducing homelessness and strengthening community safety.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta; Carolyn Greene, Wilfrid Laurier University; Katharina Maier, University of Winnipeg, and Matthew Valasik, University of Alabama

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Marta-Marika Urbanik receives funding from Killam Trusts and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Carolyn Greene receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Katharina Maier receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Matthew Valasik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.