A recent rise in crime at a townhouse complex in the city’s east end has sparked multiple police calls, prompting frustration and fear from many college students who live there.
The Foundry Georgian, located at 310 Georgian Dr., is a townhome complex that includes five buildings, each containing several units that can have up to five people living in them.
While The Foundry promotes itself as being so close to Georgian College that you have “more time to sleep in, and still make it to those classes and group projects,” the college has no formal relationship with the complex.
In an email to BarrieToday, Georgian College's dean of students, Brian Muscat, said “the address is an off-campus residence that is not, and never has been, affiliated with Georgian (College).”
BarrieToday spoke with three students who reside in the complex. All three requested anonymity as they said they were fearful of retribution from those causing the problems. We have granted them anonymity and are using aliases.
Betty Smith says she has mounting concerns about the area and the safety of all who live there.
Smith has lived in the complex for a number of years as a student and just recently graduated from Georgian College.
She came to Barrie from out of town and was looking forward to her student life until she started to see “constant fights and escalating violence” at The Foundry.
“It's really bad and no one is talking about it,” said Smith. “It seems like the police are here all the time and things are escalating in nature. Things are getting violent."
Smith said she noticed in September of 2019 an influx of non-students moving into the complex. In some cases, non-students moved into units housing students.
She cited an incident from Nov. 6 when a 26 year old woman jumped out of a third story window as to how chaotic things have been getting.
Smith said she asked several times prior to that incident when the people involved in that unit would be kicked out and noted that management “basically blew me off.”
“They keep telling me that these things take time, and I’m sure they do, but how many times are you going to let the same people get away with stuff?” she asked.
“There is a real concern that this bad element, sometimes 30-year-olds, is being paired up with 18-year-old students who don’t even know the city. I know of a female student who was living in a unit with a couple of older men, who were not students.”
The incident involving the woman jumping from the window is currently under investigation by the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
An SIU spokesperson told BarrieToday that city police were called about a domestic situation at the residence. Officers arrived at the scene, heard a disturbance and entered the unit, which is when the woman jumped.
When an on-site manager was asked, on Nov. 16, for comment about the incident, a reporter was referred to an email address on the website for comment.
A reporter has sent seven emails to Foundry management requesting an interview; all but one have gone answered since Nov. 16. On Dec. 14, an email was returned, saying “this has been forwarded to our head office to further answer any questions.”
As of this writing, no one at The Foundry head office has returned an email.
When Smith was told that management had not returned our emails, she said she wasn’t surprised and warned “you’ll never get an answer.”
“I’ve sent emails, I’ve had conversations, they do nothing. They also say they’re doing screening and background checks but there is no way they are doing that. I know people who have been kicked out of other places for bad behaviour and they’re still getting in here,” said Smith.
On Dec. 10, Smith once again contacted BarrieToday with footage showing a heavy police presence at The Foundry the night before.
It was later discovered that on Dec. 9, city police arrived at 306 Georgian Dr. to find Simcoe County paramedics tending to a male in the driveway area of the building after he had sustained a serious head injury.
Two men (aged 18 and 24) were arrested and charged with assault while the 18-year-old was also charged with assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, mischief under $5,000, and two counts of failure to comply with an undertaking.
Smith provided footage to BarrieToday of tactical officers breaking down a door at the townhouse complex where the accused were hiding.
John Williams (alias) is also a student at Georgian and said that night really shook him up.
“It's dangerous nearly every week, almost every night. I’m scared to give my name because that assault saw the victim get beat up really bad,” said Williams. “He was in really rough shape and the guys who did it don’t care about who they hurt.”
Footage showed the unit where the Dec. 9 assault took place. Several pieces of furniture were broken and flipped over with streaks of blood in some areas of the unit’s gathering room.
Williams said he wants to leave but doesn’t know where he’ll go. He doesn’t blame the college but rather questions why The Foundry would not check the backgrounds of people coming in.
“I know for a fact that the people causing the issues here have been previously kicked out of other places for violence and dealing drugs,” said Williams. “There is no way management checked them first and if they did and ignored it, then this is just a cash grab for them at this point with no concern for the students who do live here.”
Another video sent to BarrieToday from Smith shows a man with a bloody face walking towards a unit carrying a golf club. The person taking the video pleads with him to stop and go inside. The man carrying the golf club eventually hits the unit’s door with the club before slowly turning back and heading inside his own unit.
Smith said that kind of behaviour “was the norm around here.”
According to Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon, there have been 67 calls for service to the 306 Georgian Drive complex in 2021 alone. Building 306 is just one of five building locations which include 308, 310, 314 and 316.
“Three of the more recent incidents have been high profile within the community and that tends to draw more attention to the area,” said Leon.
On Aug. 4, two city police officers were assaulted in a scuffle with two intoxicated women that was caught on video at the complex.
One of the officers was kicked in the face and suffered a chipped tooth, while the other officer had a large portion of hair forcibly pulled from her scalp. She also sustained numerous abrasions, a sprained finger, as well as injuries to her neck and head area.
Both of the officers received medical attention and both women were arrested and charged.
Leon said the high incident rate is unfortunate and believes anyone looking to move into a new area should treat doing so like buying a car.
“Research it, even if that means contacting people in the neighbourhood and asking their thoughts on the area,” said Leon. “You wouldn’t buy a car without seeing what it was like first. Do the same when you move into a place. Likewise, management needs to screen tenants so as to avoid possible issues.”
Susan Wright (alias) said she has typically kept to herself, worrying only about her new studies at the nearby college.
“I have always just been a homebody, so my family has often joked that the sky could be falling and I’d never know,” said Wright. “But even I’m aware of the chaos here. I have seen drug deals in the early morning on my way to school and I once saw a scuffle coming home from Tim Hortons across the street. I basically just got here and I want out.”
