"We feel ignored and neglected by our mayor": Knife-point renews housing debate

Monday saw a renewed debate about the social psychiatric housing on Granvej in Bagsværd, with potential implications for the ballot box.

A person was injured and taken to the hospital following a stabbing with superficial wounds, and two people were arrested (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/seneste/personer-er-anholdt-efter-knivstikkeri-paa-bosted).

The housing is located in Gladsaxe Municipality but is owned by Copenhagen Municipality. They describe the housing themselves as being for people with psychological vulnerabilities and drug abuse.

Copenhagen West Police have also previously received complaints about incidents involving residents of the housing and therefore deployed heavily to the incident Monday afternoon.

TV 2 Kosmopol (https://www.tv2kosmopol.dk/gladsaxe/kaos-i-nordsjaellandsk-by-overfald-narkosalg-og-ufattelig-mange-butikstyverier-e8d4a) has previously described how the housing has created unrest for residents in the area. This includes theft, as well as drug sales on street corners.

And now enough is enough, says Conservative candidate in Gladsaxe, Henrik Sørensen.

He wants Copenhagen to take its "threatening" residents home.

- Copenhagen Municipality is simply forced to change the resident composition on Granvej.

- It is people with psychological problems and drug abuse who create unrest in the local area. Those with drug abuse create problems, and it is them who should leave, he says.

He also sharply criticizes Gladsaxe's Social Democratic mayor, Trine Græse, whom he does not believe has done enough about the problem.

Mayor Trine Græse declines an interview with DR, but has sent a written response.

- From my side, there should be no doubt that I am doing everything within my power to ensure that residents around Granvej can feel safe, she writes among other things.

Mayor Trine Græse writes to DR that she was made aware of the problems last spring. Afterwards, she immediately contacted Copenhagen, it appears. (Photo: © Søren Bidstrup, Ritzau Scanpix)

----------------------------

A friend's girlfriend was attacked

----------------------------

One of those who has spoken about their experiences is Ida Enghave.

She lives just around the corner from the housing with her two children, and the topic fills the dinner table.

- In the past few days, there have been a couple of incidents where my friend's girlfriend has been visiting. There has been shouting on the street on the way home, and one was lifted off her bike when she cycled past a man on Granvej.

In connection with the incident yesterday, she asked her two children if they felt safe overall.

- They pull a little on it, I think... unfortunately.

- I want to convince myself that we can feel safe here. It's nice, after all, to live in a nice area. There's nice neighbors. But of course, it sets a tone of unrest, she says.

"We feel ignored and neglected by our mayor," says Ida Enghave, who has lived in the area for eight years. (Photo: © Private photo)

They moved to the area eight years ago, and according to Ida Enghave, they first learned that the housing would close. It did not. She tells that they have written countless letters to mayor Trine Græse.

- There is a frustration here.

- We feel ignored and neglected by our mayor, she says and mentions that some politicians have listened to them.

------------------

Can the crossing be moved

------------------

According to Conservative candidate Henrik Sørensen, mayor Trine Græse should have done something about the problem for several years.

He also mentions that there was a proposal in the council chamber in August that would gather Gladsaxe Municipality to address Københavns Kommune and ask them to change the resident composition.

- She unfortunately voted against it. So there is unfortunately a possibility that with the mayor's support, people with a treatment order live on Granvej, he says.

And for Ida Enghave, the housing can also have significance for where she places her cross for the municipal election on 18 November.

- I would normally place my cross somewhere in the middle. But I can feel that we have been neglected by Gladsaxe's mayor in a degree that - for my own sake and other neighbors I have heard from - is quite important to place the cross, so we do not support another period with a mayor we do not think has worked to create safety.

--------------------------------

'In ongoing dialogue with Copenhagen'

--------------------------------

Mayor Trine Græse also writes to DR that she was made aware of the problems last spring. Afterwards, she immediately contacted Copenhagen, it appears.

- I am still in ongoing dialogue with Copenhagen, and after such a serious incident, it is also my understanding that Social Services will come and check that conditions on Granvej are as they should be.

- On that basis, Copenhagen has now set up a safety network, hired a neighborhood coordinator and is looking at the resident composition, she writes.

Neither Copenhagen Municipality's social mayor, Karina Vestergård Madsen (EL), nor the director of Social Services, Jacob Hess, have wished to give an interview.

But in a written response, Jacob Hess calls yesterday's incident a "very unfortunate situation."

- There has been special attention on Granvej recently, and the administration has therefore set in motion a series of initiatives and measures that should contribute to increasing safety around the shelter. As part of this work, we will also look more closely at the resident composition on Granvej.

- We will also in the future, when we visit residents at the shelter, be particularly attentive to whether it is the right match between the existing resident group and new residents, he writes.

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.