Four families have applied to move from community housing facilities in the Danzig Street area in the two weeks since a deadly mass shooting that left a 14-year-old girl and a 23-year-old man dead, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation has confirmed.
In all of 2011, five families in the area applied for a transfer, says TCHC.
Resident Susan Fullerton believes anyone traumatized by the shooting on July 16, which has been called the single worst incident of gun violence in Toronto's history, should be allowed to relocate.
According to TCHC's tenant transfer policy, victims of crime are eligible to be fast-tracked if people who feel their safety is at risk by continuing to stay at the location, or if they are witnesses to crime in which they'll be called to testify.
"What do you use to define a victim? Because my kid didn't get shot or I didn't get shot doesn't mean that we are not a victim," Fullerton said.
"My son didn't see anything and he's affected by it. His whole behaviour changed right after the incident. I am a victim."
Fullerton wants to move but hasn't yet applied, because she doesn't think it will do any good. Most residents have to wait years before another TCHC unit becomes vacant.
Khalida Sayed is one of those residents. She has been waiting four years to be transferred from her Danzig Street townhouse — which she says is too small — with her husband and 7 children.
The Sayeds feel moving is now more urgent than ever.
Hasia, Sayed's 15-year-old daughter, says she and her siblings don't go outside since the shooting, .
"That has a huge impact for us to move, because you never know if it happens again," she said.
Earlier on HuffPost:
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CBC | Posted: 07/31/2012 10:36 am Updated: 07/31/2012 12:41 pm