UPDATED 7:38 p.m. Monday

The owner of a Halifax apartment building where Corey Lucas was gunned down last month says she tried for months to get help clearing the criminal element out of her building.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced that under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhood Act, it had stepped in Friday and evicted two troublesome tenants from the Clifton Street building.

But that help was “too little, too late,” said Fatma Askri.

“After somebody dies, then everyone jumps on the wagon. ... ‘Oh, can we help, can we help?’”

Lucas was shot to death May 25 in an apartment that William Lee Bolliver and his mother, Susan Ann Hawes, rented.

Two weeks later, the building was raided and three people were arrested: Bolliver, Hawes and Harold William Marshall.

Halifax Regional Police have said the search turned up crack cocaine, oxycodone, drug paraphernalia, a handgun, ammunition and cash. All three were charged with several drug and weapons offences.

But Askri said she began trying to clean house herself back in February. At the time, she said she complained to the Residential Tenancies Board that there was drug dealing going on and that she believed her other tenants were in danger.

Askri said she was told that “even drug dealers need some place to live.”

Just a few days before Lucas was killed, Askri said she decided the only way to get rid of her troublesome tenants was to give everyone in the building notice to vacate due to renovations.

The work she has to do to the building is minor, she said.

As of Monday, Askri said her building is empty and she was in the midst of moving the belongings of two tenants, now in jail, into storage. And she said she is still left holding the bag.

“I’m dealing with this the best way I can.”

Askri said she is required to move the goods into storage for a couple of months and then she can apply to dispose of them. All of that costs money, Askri said.

In the meantime, the experienced landlord said she is also getting hassled by the bank, which is concerned that her building is empty and she has no rental income coming in from those units.

“This is destroying my life and what I have worked for.”

Askri said the trouble in the building has also hurt her reputation because citizens believe she was endorsing the drug culture.

“I’ve never even had a parking ticket.”

Previously, Askri said she had great tenants at the building.

She said she was duped into renting an apartment to Hawes last October. Even though her property manger had advised her not to rent the apartment to Hawes, Askri said the woman called her at home and spun her a story about fleeing abuse.

“She was so sweet. She talked to me so nicely. ... I’m a woman. ... I felt so sorry for her because she was homeless.”

At first, things were fine, but by December trouble was starting, and by February, Askri said some of her employees were refusing to go to the building.

(djeffrey@herald.ca)