Fearing for their safety

Seniors at provincially-run complex say their concerns are not being heard

Up until a few years ago, life at Huntingdon Court, a provincially-run seniors’ subsidized housing complex, was described by residents as “lovely.”

Residents would regularly gather in the Charlottetown building’s community rooms to play cards, catch up with neighbours or have dinner as a group.

Now, those common rooms are empty, and the residents are left fearing for their safety due to what they call a complete failure to provide a safe living space by the province’s housing department.

In a sit-down interview with The Guardian on Nov. 29, eight residents described incidents of violence, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual assaults, thefts and harassment from other residents they said were allowed to live in the complex by the province, despite being in need of addictions or mental health treatment.

“We’ve got people drinking every night, we’ve got fights, we’ve got knives being pulled on residents, we’ve got everything happening here,” said Jay, a resident at the complex.

“(The Department of Social Development and Housing) isn’t doing anything about it, and every complaint we send to housing, they say, ‘well they’re in there now, we can’t put them on the street.’ The seniors are scared to death and are being told if they can’t deal with it, they will have to move.”

The Guardian has changed the names of those

interviewed to protect their identities, as they fear the housing department will punish them for speaking out.

POLICE VISITS

Jay and the other residents said the building is frequented by strangers or those dealing with homelessness who are let in. They have found people using their laundry facilities or sleeping in the basement.

They also said garbage, personal belongings and drug paraphernalia are found in the building’s common spaces, basement and around the property.

“I don’t let my grandchildren come here anymore, and they always used to come here,” said Sheila, a resident at Huntingdon.

The residents said police visits are common for the building due to disputes, noise complaints and physical altercations involving the problematic residents or their visitors and the other seniors.

“If we try to stop them, these people get aggressive,” said Jay.

“Somebody is going to get hurt. When is housing going to understand that – when there are two or three body bags coming out of here? Why let it get to that point?”

Dee, who lives at the complex, said she was groped by another resident when walking to her apartment recently. When she complained to the Housing Services, they told her to call the police and file a report.

“(The police) told me they talked to him and told him to stay away from me, but night before last, he was knocking at my door. I didn’t answer it,” she said.

In most situations requiring law enforcement, police simply defuse the situation, tell those involved to go back to their apartments and leave, without any consequence for those involved, said the residents.

Jay said getting anything taken care of involving the problematic residents is almost impossible, as the police and housing each pass the responsibility between the two.

“They’ve allowed it to go to hell,” he said.

“They don’t care if there are people running through here, slamming doors and yelling. They don’t care if there are 10 cop cars outside. It’s become detrimental to everybody’s health now. We’re being kept awake at night. Half of the seniors here are now sleeping through the day just to avoid it.”

An email and three phone calls to Charlottetown Police Services by The Guardian were not returned by press deadline.

EMAILED RESPONSE

When The Guardian contacted the Department of Social Development and Housing regarding the concerns raised by the residents, it declined to comment and instead provided an emailed statement.

In the statement, it said the department has not received any complaints from the complex’s residents of illegal activity, such as weapon use, physical assaults or sexual assaults.

However, Dee and the other residents said their complaints are often made to a tenant outreach worker with P.E.I. Housing, which falls under the Department of Social Development and Housing.

Residents also say after those complaints are put on paper, they never hear of them again.

In the statement, a department representative said a step-by-step process is followed to deal with verbal harassment or challenges at the province’s senior housing complexes, with varying consequences depending on the complaint.

“Consequences could include verbal or written warnings, in extreme cases evictions and mapping out next steps,” said the statement.

“Additionally, staff need to consider other circumstances, such as the tenant’s health status, and determine if there are interventions that are needed by the tenant to help resolve the behaviors and maintain a successful housing placement.”

The residents said they haven’t heard of anyone involved being punished or evicted.

Outside of issues brought on by problematic residents, getting day-to-day issues resolved, such as clean-ups or repairs, is also difficult.

The building has no superintendent or full-time maintenance workers on site, said Jay, meaning if something happens, it’s often left for days at a time or dealt with by those living there.

“It’s all falling back on us,” he said.

“I’ve offered to help them out in that part, just so the police would have someone to get a master key off of. We had a lady fall over here, she was on the balcony for about an hour with a broken shoulder. We couldn’t get to her because there is no master key. No one has been entrusted with one.”

LACK OF ACTION

On Nov. 2, during the fall sitting of the legislature, Social Development and Housing Minister Brad Trivers said department staff visit the province’s seniors’ housing complexes regularly, “Definitely weekly, if not more often than that.”

However, the residents said they rarely see anyone walk through the building to check on things, especially since the pandemic started.

“We never see anyone through here unless there is something serious that needs to be fixed,” said Jay.

“We can barely get through to them on the phone, and if something happens on the weekend, forget about getting ahold of them.”

The lack of action against those creating issues for the seniors, as well as a lack of communication and presence within the building by the province, has left most of the residents feeling neglected and devalued, they said.

But with a lack of affordable housing in P.E.I., many of them have nowhere else to go and resort to isolating themselves.

“People are not happy here because they are scared,” said Sheila.

“I don’t like going outside my apartment because of all this. People will say, ‘Oh I haven’t seen you in a while,’ but it’s because you are just stuck inside all the time. It’s a depressing place to live now.”