At 61 years old, Jacqueline Turbitt never thought she would be homeless at this point in her life.
But when she was renovicted from her longtime apartment in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley earlier this year, she says she had nowhere to go.
Turbitt has since stayed at a shelter in Kentville, N.S., and says the only thing making the situation worse is the stigma in the community surrounding homelessness. “We just want to be treated with respect. We are human beings. We’re just down on our luck,” Turbitt said.
Tensions over the growing homeless population in Kentville have been on the rise recently, leading to a lively public meeting in January attended by hundreds of people.
Business owners are upset about disruptive behaviour in the downtown area and some residents have said they feel unsafe.
But advocates say misinformation online is making the situation worse and turning some people against the services trying to address the problem and the people using them.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a feeling of ‘I don’t matter,’” Turbitt said.