‘I don’t feel safe’: Halifax senior on living at provincially run housing complex

A 95-year-old N.S. woman is speaking out about what she calls the unsafe and deteriorating conditions of an independent seniors complex she lives at.

Residents and family members at an independent seniors’ complex in Halifax are raising concerns over safety issues, and want the provincial housing authority to take action.

They allege people who don’t even live in the building are getting inside and harassing residents.

“I don’t feel safe,” 95-year-old Winnifred Bowden said.

Bowden lives in the building on Devonshire Avenue in Halifax operated by Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency (NSPHA). She’s lived there for nearly four decades, but in recent years, she’s noticed things deteriorating.

Her son, Joe Bowden, says complaints range from non-residents “roaming the halls late at night” to unhoused people sleeping in the common areas and even confrontations between tenants.

“There were incidents where people were knocking on the door late at night, early in the morning, and we found out that it was a lady across the hall that has dementia,” he said.

“And then recently, I guess it got to the point where some of the people in the building were afraid to walk the hall because they thought that they could be accosted or who knows what could happen.”

Instead of feeling like her home is a place of refuge, the senior says she dreads being there.