After 2 deaths, Boston Housing Authority to evict tenant Housing agency official cites opiate epide

By Emily Sweeney BOSTON GLOBE STAFF

Photo Caption: Two males were found dead of apparent overdoses in a hallway at 18 Lattimore Court in Boston on Saturday. Dina Rudick/BOSTON GLOBE STAFF

The Boston Housing Authority plans to evict a tenant who lives in the Boston apartment close to the hallway spot where two males were found dead from apparent drug overdoses Saturday.

Police released few details about the two unidentified males who police said were discovered lying on the floor in the second-floor hallway at 18 Lattimore Court .Both were dead when officers from District D-4 and Boston Emergency Medical Services arrived at the scene at approximately 6:30 p.m., police said.

“Aside from stating that the deaths appeared to be drug related and possibly the cause of an overdose, there’s not much more to share at this point,” said Officer James Kenneally, a police spokesman, in an e-mail Sunday afternoon.

William McGonagle, administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, said his agency is cooperating with police and will move forward to evict the leaseholder Monday morning.

“It was clearly a horrific incident, and I think it’s indicative of the ongoing opiate epidemic throughout the Commonwealth and the country,” McGonagle said. “We’re going to move aggressively on the eviction [of the tenant, and] work with police to bring criminal charges.”

On Sunday afternoon, the only signs of the incident were tattered remnants of yellow police tape near the entrance to the brick building. Broken glass, cigarette butts, and an empty Heineken beer bottle were strewn along the grass outside. A hypodermic needle lay at the foot of the stairs.

Residents of the housing development say drugs are a major problem in their neighborhood.

Jeovanny Tovar, 28, who lives in an apartment not far from 18 Lattimore Court, said he does not allow his three children to play outside around that part of the housing development, because he has seen syringes and needles on the ground and people using drugs in the stairwells.

“There’s a lot of that here,” Tovar said.

Tovar said he has lived there for a year and wants to move his family out.

“We’re trying to get out of here as fast as possible,” he said.

Another resident, who did not want her name published, shook her head and said she was sick of seeing drug users loitering around her building.

“Something needs to be done, or there’s going to be another death,” she said.

Meanwhile, the city’s health department has stepped up its outreach efforts to address the increasing numbers of suspected overdoses in the city.

According to the Boston Public Health Commission, Boston EMS responded to 32 suspected overdoses on Dec. 19 and 20.

This year, as of Dec. 22, 761 Narcan doses had been administered by Boston EMS and fire personnel, trained family members, and clinicians, compared with 499 doses for the same period in 2013, said McKenzie Ridings, spokeswoman for the Boston Public Health Commission.

Ridings said that in January, the health commission will hold a series of Narcan training sessions for the public at the commission’s facility on Albany Street in the South End.

For more information, visit www.BPHC.org/Narcan.