Once a hive of illegal activity, it was closed down by neighbours fed up with seeing what Det. Maurice Brodeur calls "disreputables" when they peered out their front-room windows.

"Nobody knows what goes on in the neighbourhood better than the people who live there," says Brodeur. "Drug houses affect people's quality of life."

Community involvement is the cornerstone behind report-a-drug-house, an EPS pilot project which went city-wide on Monday.

Initially implemented on the south side, the program was responsible for successfully shutting down 88 confirmed drug houses between September 2005 and June 2006, and identifying many more.

As of today, people who suspect there's a drug house in their neighbourhood can contact their community police station or phone a hotline -- 426-8229.

Doing so will set into motion a process that involves numerous agencies in the city, among them bylaw enforcement, Capital Health and social services.

" 'Drug house' is actually a misnomer," says Brodeur. "It's really a 'disorder house.' Yes, there are drugs in the house -- usually meth or coke -- but there aren't a lot of drugs."

There are, however, occupants whose troubles can overtake a house, and eventually an entire neighbourhood, even those with million-dollar-plus properties.

"When we do our analyses and see a spike in crimes in an area," says Brodeur, "like prostitution, fighting, break and enters in cars and garages, we know there's a drug house somewhere."'

Not all of the houses wind up condemned, like the one in McCauley.

Sometimes tenants move out voluntarily or cease whatever behaviour is drawing the attention of police.

Sometimes, too, says Brodeur, the people living there are "down on their luck" and take advantage of help from social agencies that get involved.

Marlene Castor happened to be in the neighbourhood visiting a friend.

She was one of the last tenants to vacate the rooming house in McCauley, which is where police and media gathered for Monday's announcement.