First published Nov. 29, 2014 It was the black Hummer H1 neighbours recognized first. Gohar (Carmen) Ahmed Pervez, a convicted mortgage fraud artist some in inner city communities view as a slumlord, got out of jail in 2010 and is back in Parkdale and McCauley neighbourhoods. He’s been buying up marginal properties — renting, renovating and trying to sell them again. Some of his tenants give his homes a reputation for trouble, causing fear and headaches among his neighbours. But some in the neighbourhoods credit him for giving a chance to the hard-to-house homeless and for providing renovation employment for ex-convicts. Pervez, who has since changed his name to Abdullah Shah, was charged in 2005 as the ringleader for a $30 million-mortgage fraud that earned him $1.8 million in profit. He pleaded guilty to 54 counts of fraud in 2008 and was sentenced to five years. But with credit for time served, he got out after two.

Carmen Pervez, who has since changed his name to Abdullah Shah. Now he claims to be a significant player in the inner city again with 93 properties — homes, apartments and lodging houses. “We thought he was gone. Not so much,” said Tracy Patience, who lives across the alley from a string of five houses he owns or at least controls through a numbered company on 86th Street north of 112th Avenue. Neighbours were in tears on the phone for this article, worried about putting their names to complaints about Pervez’s tenants but wanting the full tale out. He attracts troubled tenants, including those whose business activities have neighbourhood constables looking twice and ex-homeless people who can’t rent anywhere else. Patience said she’s had enough. In this year alone, she and her husband had their van broken into and traced the footprints back to Pervez property. They called police for a dozen people brawling with baseball bats and knives in the alley, then watched fighters scurry back into those same properties. She called paramedics for a drunk tenant who fell down the stairs. When she peeked inside, the home had exposed wiring. She’s been warned gang members are watching her from the properties and called Occupational Health and Safety officials after watching a longtime local homeless man balance on a ladder two-storeys up without a safety harness to add a new coat of stucco. The same man, who seemed addicted or mentally ill, also ferried stoves from home to home for Pervez using a dolly tied to his bike. “I’ve called everyone I could think of calling,” she said. But visit after visit from provincial and municipal agencies isn’t fixing the problem. “It seems like a really horrible system that is set to be exploited by people like this,” she said. “We’re trying to do it piecemeal. The police are coming out when there is a crime. Planning and development is coming out where there is an issue with zoning. Bylaw is coming out when there is a mess. Alberta Health Services is coming out. You’ve got all of these little pieces of the puzzle coming out. There needs to be a co-ordinated effort.” It leaves neighbours feeling isolated. “Who is letting this happen?” said Patience. “Because I don’t think this would be happening in Riverbend.”

Pervez, 52, has been a fixture in Edmonton’s core east-side neighbourhoods for years. This summer, he told the Subdivision Development Appeal Board that he’s bought and sold 750 properties in the area. Between 2001 and 2005, organized crime investigators tied 280 properties to his mortgage fraud scheme. He lives in the Haddow neighbourhood of Terwillegar and drives a black Lamborghini as well as the Hummer. He has loyal friends and admirers. He hires people off the street to renovate his properties and lets them live on-site, even while the home is under construction. While neighbours worry vulnerable people are being taken advantage of, others are grateful for the opportunity. “He pays us labour,” said Tyler Clark, who lives beside the string of five Pervez-controlled properties on 86th Street and helped apply acrylic stucco. Clark served federal time and doesn’t have any formal tickets in the trades, he said. “I’m just learning. … Carmen, he’s helped me out quite a bit, actually. I’ve found other jobs through him.” Sarah Fassman has been managing properties with Pervez for 10 years and had tears in her eyes when asked about the mortgage fraud. “As an outsider looking in, I have seen a lot of things that are completely unfair,” she said. “He’s an absolutely wonderful person.” “Why is he still working in the area? Because that’s what he does. It’s his passion and he’s helped so many people down there. I’ve never seen anyone who works as hard as he does.” Despite repeated requests, Pervez couldn’t be reached for comment. Fassman said he was busy with end-of-the-month rent cheques. Fassman said their work is about giving people a chance. She works with police to make sure any problem tenants are evicted, she said. “We go around to all the properties everyday. We drive around day and night checking on the crews, checking on the tenants. It’s hands on.” As for the string of properties causing trouble near Patience, Fassman said the neighbours likely got upset because construction was happening on so many properties at once. “You make a mess. That’s what caused some turbulence with the community,” she said. Inside the homes, “is absolutely beautiful. We put new cabinets in, granite counter tops.”

The kitchen in an apartment owned by Carmen Pervez located near 112th Avenue and 86th Street. On 86th Street, the properties are easily recognizable; renovations seem to always include a new coat of stucco painted grey, even over the window frames. The windows get a trademark trapezoid decorating the top. One home has holes drilled through the exterior walls to accommodate several security video cameras and lumber in place of sidewalks. There are gaps between the window frame and wall, and several windows covered with loose plastic to keep out drafts. Inside another unit, the ceramic tile and laminate floors look new. The counter tops are laminate. Some units are being heated with space heaters. “He’s the slumest landlord you ever met,” said one tenant, afraid he’ll be evicted if he’s named or lets a reporter inside his unit. The unit is infested with mice and bedbugs, he said. “In the summer, you can smell the mould.”

Before 2005, several of Pervez’s rental properties were condemned. Some were renovated with construction material stolen from new home construction sites. Several of his tenants are on disability assistance and one is paying $1,550 a month for a tiny two bedroom, above market rate for the neighbourhood. Shirley Bush pays $1,200 for a small one bedroom in a building with five suites. The 77-year-old had been living on the street for more than two years before the Boyle Street Co-op helped her find this place.

Shirley Bush is a tenant in an apartment owned by Carmen Pervez. There are parties past 1 a.m., there’s no washer or dryer and she only sees Fassman when she pays the rent. But the place is fine, she said. “I don’t put up with shit from nobody.” Chris Wagner, civics director for the Parkdale Community League, said neighbourhoods such as Parkdale, McCauley and Alberta Avenue are ripe for builders wanting to flip a house and make quick cash. The lot values are low, but it’s centrally located and brand new house can still go for $400,000. With a few cosmetic changes, a builder can make a lot money. “A house going up in value by $100,000 is not an unusual thing,” Wagner said. Pervez and Fassman have several houses listed for several times what they were recently bought for. A home in McCauley, 10648 95th Street, was bought in a private sale for $110,000 in November 2012. It’s now listed for $354,900. A house at 11240 86th Street was sold in a private sale for $153,750 in March 2014. It’s currently listed for $399,900, and next door, a two-storey commercial property Fassman wants to run as a lodging house was bought for $153,750 last winter. It was listed for $649,000 this summer while they fought unsuccessfully for the conversion at the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board. Now it’s off the market. Fassman said she will reapply next year. The Parkdale Community League fought the new lodging house, said Wagner. Sometimes people paint opposition to rooming houses as NIMBY, homeowners wanting to gentrify a neighbourhood and kick the homeless and low-income out. But it’s not the organized subsidized housing that’s causing problems, Wagner said. “It’s not Homeward Trust. It’s slum landlords in these rooming houses taking AISH cheques and letting these people do whatever they want.” In 2013, Pervez bought another illegal rooming house on 93rd Street. Neighbours didn’t have issues with the three-storey home previously, they said, even though it had eight rooms in a house zoned single-family. Then neighbours started to see an odd amount of foot traffic and started to worry about drug deals. There was a shooting at the property, and police cars filled the street, scaring customers at a nearby home-based business. Pervez bought another property beside the first and neighbours worried about blockbusting. Would the appearance and activity at his properties drive down home values on the block so much he could scoop up more? They watch each For Sale sign with concern.