Brian Jollimore is a tenant at Sir John Thompson Manor, one of Nova Scotia’s designated seniors’ buildings. He moved in about 18 months ago and says he loves the location, the building and the subsidized rent, but the company it’s begun to keep has him worried for seniors’ safety. “Because the homeless people will let in. If they were properly vetted and if it wasn’t the drug addicts and the prostitutes that stuff. Other than that, it’s a nice place,” says Jollimore. One of the reasons he wanted to live in the building is because it’s designated for seniors and he feels it needs to stay that way. “There are other places they can put these people in but a seniors’ building should be just for seniors,” says Jollimore. According to the Nova Scotia Housing Agency (NSHA), Halifax’s Sir John Thompson Manor and Joseph Howe Manor only allow seniors to live in them. Tenants need to be 58 years or older and live on a low income. “Seventy per cent of our units are occupied by seniors and the rest are families so we don’t have a lot of inventory for single individuals under the age of 58,” says Pamela Menchenton, executive director of client services with NSHA. “So we may look at a change down the road but for right now our seniors’ buildings are our seniors’ buildings.” Bill VanGorder, the former chair for the Canadian Association of Retired Persons in Nova Scotia, says he’s also heard concerns from seniors around safety in similar buildings. “There needs to be much more work done so if they are going to be in these places, they’re well controlled and more ideally the seniors be able to be on their own and that means the management needs to have more communication with the seniors and more visible security,” says VanGorder. The housing agency says it assures tenants security is in place at these buildings. They say these recent concerns from tenants at the Sir John Thompson Manor and the Joseph Howe Manor have not been brought forward to them but to hear them now is concerning. “We are the landlord and we want to work with police and be partners in dealing with any particular issues that may be contributing to a safety concern for any of our tenants in the building but as far as we know that’s not something that has been brought forward to our folks recently. If there is something new happening, we need to know about it and if there is something we can do about it we absolutely will,” says Menchenton. VanGorder says it’s important for seniors to feel safe where they are living and there needs to be more housing options for them. “When they are not comfortable, when they are not feeling safe and they are not feeling they are cared for or looked after, that creates stress, mental health problems and makes them very unhappy in the later years of their life,” says VanGorder. The housing agency has scheduled two tenant engagement meetings next week at both seniors’ buildings. “We are inviting police to those meetings as well because we absolutely want to hear if there are any concerns about safety or if there is more crime that they are seeing in which case we would encourage people to go to the police,” says Menchenton. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
